The Cat and Me: a Seussical Fanfiction
by MagicalAwesomeness
Summary: What if the clover never fell? What if two very different birds switched places? And what if the person who controlled the whole dimension of Seuss wasn't the Cat in the Hat after all, but just a normal kid? Talia Jacobs, a non-Thinker, has to discover the power of her Thinks and save Seuss from being destroyed and crumbled into little pieces. No pressure, of course.
1. Prologue: Off to a Good Start

**Prologue**

"Tell us your full name, grade, and what character you'd like to play."

I looked up at the directors. Some of them were smiling, and some of them weren't. The one who just gave me an order seemed the worst of them all. For being a happy play like Seussical, they didn't seem very excited.

"M-my name is Talia Jacobs, I'm in eighth grade, and I'm trying for the Cat in the Hat," I stuttered.

One of the directors raised their eyebrows. "Isn't that part for a boy?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, I just thought it would be in my range."

Another director sighed and wrote down a note on a clipboard. He didn't look enthusiastic at all.

"Sing something for us." It was the music director, the one who seemed the cheeriest of all the directors.

I glanced away and wrung my hands. I have to sing at auditions too? "What would you like me to sing?"

"It can be anything, as long as it's from this play and your character sings in it."

Okay, that narrowed it down. Not _Notice Me, Horton_ or _Amazing Mayzie_. What about _Solla Sollew_? Was the Cat in that? I liked that song a lot, but I'd get points deducted if I sang the wrong number. Let's stick with _Oh, The Thinks You Can Think_. Yeah, everyone's in that song.

"I'll be singing the opening number."

"_Thinks_? Okay, go ahead."

"Can I get a starting note?" I was feeling nervous about singing for all the directors, or judges, as they looked more like to me now.

The music director hummed a C and motioned for me to start.

I took a deep breath and began to sing.

"Oh, the thinks you can think

"Oh, the thinks you can think

"If you're willing to try…

"Think invisible ink

"Or a Gink with a stink

"Or a stair to the-" The assistant director stopped me.

"And you wanted to be the Cat, you say?" she asked disapprovingly, staring at me as if she could bore holes into my body with laser vision.

"Yes, that's what I said."

"Okay, thank you." She motioned for me to leave.

No comments, nothing? I hung my head slightly and started to leave.

"Oh, and Talia?"

"Yes?" I turned around, excited that they would congratulate me.

"Make sure to close the door behind you."

I sighed and turned towards the door. As I closed it behind me, I thought to myself, "Wow, great job Talia. You'll never get the part. Your perfect world will be ruined."

Even my brain hated me. This was off to an excellent start.

* * *

**MagicalAwesomeness: Hello Seussians! As being a fellow one myself, I kind of invited myself to the Seussical party and I am happy to be here nevertheless! **

**Cat: When do I come in?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Not yet, Cat. Wait your turn.**

**Talia: But I'm already in the story, right?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Yes, Talia, you're the main character! Do I have to explain how stories work to you again?**

**Cat: Yeah, Talia!**

**Talia: Now you hold it right there furry face!**

**Cat: What, non-Thinker?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Don't forget to send in a review!**

***Talia and Cat continue to squabble in the background***


	2. Chapter 1: Thank Your Lucky Stars

**1**

-about 3 months later-

The dances were learned. The costumes were made. The words and songs flew around in my head in a jumbled mess. I couldn't even think straight.

I had pretty big shoes to fill in the beginning, after being cast as the Cat understudy. I had to follow around Thomas, who was cast as the Cat, and I had to learn all his lines, but I couldn't sing or dance with him. I had to just sit and watch. When I was promoted to the real Cat about a month from showtime after Thomas broke his leg, I felt happier. But I was constantly being judged by everyone, even kids who were younger than I was. Case in point:

**Director: Now, during the auctioneer scene, there are lines for you, but feel free to make up your own. Now show me what you've got.**

**Me: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Seusseby's. The first item up for bidding is lot 39, a pendulous pachyderm on egg, nest, and tree. The bidding will begin at ten thousand dollars. Do I hear ten thousand dollars from anyone in the audience? Once, twice, sold, to the man with the sideburns and greasy black mustache! Oh, excuse me, madam. Sold to the man from the circus!**

**Director: Good job. One thing, though.**

**Me: Yes?**

**Director: You didn't make up your own lines.**

**Me: Do I have to?**

**Director: It seems to me like you're taking the part of the Cat a little too seriously. You can relax and have some fun with the part.**

**Me: I feel like it's my duty to be serious enough that everyone can stay in line.**

**Director: Don't worry about that. That's our job.**

**Me: I'll try not to worry, but I'm not making any guarantees.**

**Director: Go out to the stage and tell Horton to come in.**

**Me: Do you mean Jackson? That's his name.**

**Director: Just go.**

People criticized me everywhere I went ("Oh, it's the _fake_ Cat) and sometimes they wouldn't even talk to me - unless they were forced to, of course.

But that was all in the past, and today was the day before opening night. I could barely eat, I was so excited.

"Did you know that Dr. Seuss's mother was over 6 feet tall? And she loved to high dive!" I told my family at dinner.

"Gre-e-e-eat," my little sister Laura said sarcastically. "Thanks for the facts, Cat."

"My name is Talia and you fully well know it!" I laughed. This joke had been going on ever since I told her I got the part, and it definitely wouldn't stop when the play was over.

"We're at the dinner table to eat, you guys," our mom reminded us as she picked up a piece of tofu with her fork.

I looked down to my plate, and suddenly I wasn't hungry anymore.

"Can I leave the table?" I asked.

My mom looked at my plate of unfinished food. "Sure, just put the scraps in Max's bowl."

I took my plate to our dog's bowl and scraped the food in. "Here you go, Max."

His name is Max. I just noticed that Max was the name of the Grinch's dog. Ha, that's a funny coincidence.

I walked downstairs into the basement, which we converted into a game room with a flat screen TV. Just out of curiosity, I turned the TV on to see what was playing. The first movie to come up on the screen was _Horton Hears a Who_. I flipped to the next channel, where _The Cat in the Hat_ was on. What was this, Seuss night? But hey, maybe it was a good thing. Maybe Mike Myers (who played the Cat) could give me a few tips.

When the movie ended an hour and a half later, I felt even less inspired. Everything was just too wild and crazy for me to understand. I needed order and perfection, something that the movie just didn't have.

"Maybe I just need a good night's sleep," I thought to myself. I turned off the TV and rolled over on the leather couch. I tried to slow my breathing down to a calm state. I shut my eyes.

Then I opened them again.

I couldn't sleep. Was it the stress of being yelled at for not being "the perfect Cat"? If the real Cat were here, he could give me a few pointers.

What was I thinking? The Cat isn't real. None of the Seussian characters are real. They're all just characters out of Theodore Geisel's imagination.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud _thump_ from upstairs. Laura probably rolled out of her bed again. She does that a lot, and then my parents have to tuck her back into bed.

But Laura's room was on the second floor and I was in the basement. It couldn't have been _that_ loud, could it have?

I was going completely paranoid from lack of sleep. "Maybe if I put my pillow over my face it'll work," I thought to myself. It couldn't hurt to try. I grabbed a nearby pillow and set it on top of my face. Now it was darker, but it was also harder to breathe. I tried to relax and go to sleep.

_Cre-e-e-e-eak_. The stairs to the basement creaked as if someone was sneaking down them. Then there was a little _cough_. Someone had broke into our house! I pulled the pillow off my face and sat up quietly. It didn't look like anyone was around. Then I felt a small tingling on the back of my neck and a pat on my shoulder.

What happened next was really just a series of events. I jumped, I almost fell off the chair, I grabbed onto a chair arm for support, the chair arm broke, I fell, and someone fell on top of me.

"Ow…" I moaned, pushing a furry tail off my face and sighing.

Wait. A furry tail?

"Tell me about it, kid."

I jumped up, pushing the stranger off of me. I started to pant heavily as I watched the stranger stand up. "You scared me, kid," the stranger said, turning around.

I couldn't see the stranger very well in the dark, so I reached over to the lamp and turned it on.

Then, as the stranger came into view, I let out a scream.

Of anyone that it could have been, it had to be the Cat.

* * *

**Cat: Hey, that's me!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Yes, that's you. Calm down.**

**Talia: And am I in the story too?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: *sigh***

**Cat: Duh!**

**Talia: What did you say, furry face?!**

**Cat: How dare you call me that, non-Thinker!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Don't forget to leave a review!**


	3. Chapter 2: Worlds, Dimensions, Hats

**2**

The Cat waved his gloved hand, and I was speechless. "B-b-but y-you're the…"

"The…?" the Cat said, arching an eyebrow and staring at me.

"The Cat in the Hat! That's impossible!"

The Cat snickered. "Oh, it's possible."

"Well, _anything's_ possible, but only in a dream."

"So you're telling me that I'm just a dream and that I'm not real?" The Cat's face fell.

"No… I mean yes… I mean…" I was at a loss for words. I was making the most joyful character in musical history sad! "What I'm trying to say is that you're a fictional character created by Theodore Geisel."

The Cat furrowed his brows. "_He_ created _us_? That's what you think?"

"Uh, yeah, because that's the truth!"

Suddenly, the Cat began to laugh. "Is this what all of you here think?"

I was just confused now. "I studied the life of Dr. Seuss and it never mentioned that he was created by a bunch of imaginary characters."

"How do you think he came up with his pen name?" the Cat said, obviously trying to trick me.

"Because it was his mother's maiden name?"

"Wrong. That's a publicity stunt created to hide the _real_ truth."

I coughed and stared at the Cat. "Okay, if you're so smart, explain this: why did Theodore Geisel even need a pen name?

"Ask me an easier one. He was banned from the college newspaper for throwing wild parties in his room! Let me ask _you_ something._ Why_ did he throw wild parties?"

"He was a party animal?"

"He met us! Talia, you aren't the fuzziest clover in the patch, are you?"

I was starting to freak out right about now. "How do you know my name?!"

"I know everything about you. I know you landed a part as me, you were mocked nonstop, and you wished for me to come and give you some Cat training. Is that correct?"

This was turning from awkward to creepy really fast. "Yes."

"So I'm here, and I got here at just the right time, too. We're in the middle of a terrible crisis in Seuss."

"There's a whole other world?"

"More like a whole other dimension. Frankly, Talia, I'm surprised that you are playing me, because you don't know how to think at all!"

I knew where this was going. "Oh, no, no, no. I've read the script enough times to know where this is going. You're going to just whisk me off to some other world and try to get me to learn something! Well, I'm not going!"

Suddenly, footsteps sounded, and my mom ran down the stairs. "What's going on, Talia? It sounded like you were yelling."

"I…um…" I stared at the Cat wordlessly for assistance, but the Cat just shook his head and chuckled.

"I was… on the phone with a friend!" I lied.

My mom looked confused. "But you called that friend Cat."

"Oh, we have nicknames for each other. Her nickname is Cat and my nickname is… um… Jojo!"

My mom never saw the script, so she didn't know that Jojo was just a character from the play. "Well, tone it down a little, okay?" Then she sighed and walked back up the stairs.

As soon as she left, I turned to the Cat. "See what you made me do?!" I hissed to him. "This is why I'm such a serious person!"

The Cat shrugged. "All right. You can come or you can stay. But I have to leave now, so take your pick."

On one hand, I would be able to learn how to become the Cat and I could possibly save a dimension. On the other, I may never be able to get back and everyone would think that I was crazy if I did.

"Tick, tock," the Cat sighed. "Better make a move."

I sighed and hoped that I made the right decision. "I'm coming with you."

"You are?" The Cat looked astonished, but then masked it with excitement. "Then come along, and I'll take you there. All you need to do is hold this." Then the Cat took off his hat and held it out in front of him. "Grab on."

I reached out in front of me and took hold of the hat. Instantly, my eyelids felt heavier, I felt lighter on my feet, and the world was just fading out around me before I blacked out.

* * *

**Talia: Nothing really happened during that chapter!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: That's because it's a filler chapter, Talia, and I had to break the chapters up so they didn't go over the max character limit.**

**Talia: The what?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: *sigh***

**Cat: Tell me about it, kid.**

**Talia: Hey! What's wrong with me?!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Guys, stop fighting!**

**Cat: You can't tell me what to do!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: *facepalm* Don't forget to review.**


	4. Chapter 3: Becoming the Cat

**3**

I finally came back into consciousness when my body hit a cold, grassy field.

"Cat? In the Hat?" I mumbled as I sat up and rubbed my head. Then I took the time to look around. Vast forest canopies were all around, as well as a variety of jungle animals.

_Where the clover patch are we?_

I did not just think that. I couldn't have.

As I was just about to verbally ask where we were, my question was answered for me.

"It's the jungle of Nool!" I heard a familiar voice belonging to the Cat exclaim.

"Near the river Walloo!" Now _that_ voice, I didn't recognize. It sounded like it belonged to a boy that was about as old as I was, maybe a little younger.

_Was that voice Jojo's? _I got up on my feet and started to look around. In the distance, I heard faint singing from the animals in the jungle. _Who-who-wah-dah, who-who-who-wah-dah-wah-dah..._

I followed the faint voices, and listened for more possible narration from the Cat and/or Jojo. I heard a faint call from Jojo, who exclaimed "Horton the Elephant!" but nothing from the Cat.

Eventually, I came across a small pool, where a large elephant was sitting in. And the weird thing was that the elephant was singing. "I'll just have to save them, because after all, a person's a person, no matter how small," he reasoned.

Suddenly, I heard a loud _sniff_ from next to me and I looked up to see the Cat standing there wiping his eyes with a red-and-white striped cloth.

"Hey! Cat! Where have you been? Don't ever make me lose you again!" Then I quickly covered my mouth with my hand. I spoke in rhyme. I. Spoke. In. Frickin. Rhyme.

The Cat leaned down the six inches that separated us and whispered in my ear. "If you wanna talk, then let's just go, over there where nobody would know." He took the lead and beckoned me over to a nearby tree.

"Cat, why am I speaking in rhyme? And do I have to use couplets all the time?" I said quietly, not to interrupt Horton's solo.

The Cat shrugged. "Speaking in rhyme here's by technical law. If I remember correctly, it's rule number..." the Cat trailed off, counting on his fingers. Then he held up three and exclaimed, "_Trois_!"

"But Cat, can they see us? Standing right here?" My words didn't rhyme! Wait, my words didn't rhyme?

"Looking around, seems not, it would appear!" He can finish my rhymes too, apparently. Great. "Oh yeah, there is something I need to tell you. It is actually very important to do."

I heard a loud _Humph!_ ring through the jungle, but I kept my gaze on the Cat. "So Cat, just what could this important thing be? Could it be an adventure, a map, or a key?"

The Cat rolled his eyes at my witty wordplay. "I know that tomorrow you need to play the Cat - oh, it's weird to speak about me in third-person like that! But here's something to do to understand me: close your eyes, grab the hat, and then count one-two-three."

I felt a little nervous about this. The last time I grabbed the hat, I was transported into this dimension. But if I got an insider look, I'd be willing to take the plunge. I grabbed onto the brim of the Cat's hat and counted silently to myself. _One...two...three!_

I opened my eyes and looked around. I felt a little taller, like I was wearing high heels. Then I looked around for the Cat. Nope, can't see him anywhere. Where did he go?

**Oh why, Talia, I'm right up here.**

I looked around for the Cat, but instead, I rocked back and forth and fell. I stretched my hand out out and hoped I wouldn't land on my face when my tail reached forward and cushioned my fall.

My tail?

Oh God. Ohgodohgodohgod. I reached up and touched my head. A tall hat was sitting up there. I looked down to see that my body was covered in fur.

**Talia, as the Cat you will now appear.**

The Cat sounded a lot like Yoda as he recited his backwards rhymes. Or I recited them. How does this work?

**So kid, you wanted to be The Cat in the Hat. You wanted to perform acting just like that. So I decided to give you an insider's look into my world - like I had just popped out of a book!**

I felt pretty frustrated with the Cat's schemes. "Okay, Cat, now you can change me back."

**Changing-back skills? That's the one thing I lack.**

Then I realized that nobody else could hear the Cat except for me. I became the Cat, and the Cat became my guide.

**Now get out there and perform, you'll soon miss your cue. And who knows what world-changing that ****_that_**** would do!**

The Cat - or me - made a good point. The Wickersham brothers had already made their entrance, and if I'm not a reporter by the time my lines are supposed to arrive, then what?

Under my breath so I wouldn't be stared at, I whispered, "Cat, oh Cat, what do I do, Cat? I don't have a microphone, I can't go out like that!"

**You're the Cat; who knows what you can ensue! Just summon your Cat magic and do what I do!**

He was right. As the real Cat, I could do whatever I wanted to. I reached out my hand and a red glittery microphone fell into it. I stretched out my arms and my tux jacket turned white.

Oh, my cue! All the jungle animals were singing about Horton being a fool or something, but I snuck around to a wooden platform conveniently placed so it could be used as an interviewing station. I climbed up onto it and got ready to deliver my lines.

**You can do it, now just go - show those Noolians what you know!**

But wait, my interviewer lines didn't rhyme! Would I be breaking Technical Law #3?

"Our topic today is psychic elephants who hear voices! Whaddaya think folks, is the elephant off his trunk? Don't go away, we'll be right back with Clover, Speck, Dust, Neighbor, Who... Stay tuned!"

That didn't rhyme, and I wasn't disintegrated!

**Oh yeah, kid, I forgot to mention something that needed your whole attention...**

"And Cat, oh Cat, yes, what is it, Cat?" I whispered while I was interviewing Gertrude McFuzz.

**We don't always have to speak in rhyme.**

If I ever get back into my own body, I'll use my own hands to strangle that Cat.

* * *

**Cat: Hey, that's mean!**

**Talia: Sorry, I was feeling irritable.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: You're STILL fighting?!**

**Cat: *feeling jealous* Why don't you go work on WATTPAD with their FANCY BUTTONS and PEWDIEPIE FANFICS and just leave us here ALL ALONE?!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Sorry, it's just that with-**

**Cat: Don't say anything.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Don't forget to review, guys!**

**Cat: *grumble* She doesn't like us anymore.  
**

**Talia: Oh, it'll be fine. I hope.**


	5. Chapter 4: An Unfortunate Accident

**4**

My nose twitched. My tail curled. I didn't like this. Nope, not at all.

"Cat, if not everything has to rhyme, then why am I speaking in couplets at this time?"

**YOU still have to speak in rhyme. I, on the other hand, don't.**

I let out a sigh. This was annoying. "Cat, I'm sick of your terrible schemes, and your thinks, and your thoughts, and even your dreams. So if you'd just leave, it'll be fine with me. I'm just Talia Jacobs. That's all I wanna be."

**Now, if you're gonna be the Cat, there are a few things you should know.**

"You're not listening to me! I don't want to be the Cat! I don't want to be The Cat in the Hat!"

**Number 1: Handle your power carefully. The whole Seuss dimension is in your hands. If you mess this up, you may never be able to return home.**

"Cat, just shut up! I don't want you here! As The Cat in the Hat I don't want to appear!"

**Number 2: Jojo is all yours. Don't lead him into trouble. If he thinks the wrong things, it could lead to disaster. Just say your lines, don't mess up, and take care of him.**

"Just leave me alone! Now I just hate you! Everything you say, everything you do! You got me in trouble! Get out! Go away! I don't want you here! I don't want you to stay!"

**Number 3: When you scream like that, people will notice. Don't think that they won't. Now go give Horton that magnifying glass!**

"You know what? Being the Cat, I'm done! Oh yeah, in the beginning, it's all in good fun. But then YOU are there, and I never get my way! So if I'm to be the Cat, you had better not stay." I pulled my hat off and reached into it. Then I pulled out a blue magnifying glass covered with white spots.

**Now, just hand it to him.**

I handed the magnifying glass to Horton, who grabbed it with his trunk. Then, quickly as I could, I moved away from the group. I needed to have a discussion with this Cat.

"Now you listen right here, Cat, listen right here! What's going on now is just what I fear. Disorder, confusion, it's just not right! Now, unless you want to be here into the night go away, I don't want you! I don't want you no more! You dragged me into your body! That's just trouble galore! And you're frustrating me, but oh, this is not new! Not only me, but young Jojo too!"

**Aw, poor Talia. She thinks she has a choice. Now be careful, because if you deliver the wrong lines or make the wrong movements, it will be detrimental to our universe!**

I needed to calm myself down. I took a deep breath and sighed. "Don't worry Cat, I will, yes, I will. And I understand I've got big shoes to fill, but if you'll set me free, I'll do what you say. Yes, I will. I'll follow it all day." I turned around and bumped into the Sour Kangaroo, who fell over and crashed to the ground.

I felt bad for hurting such a dominant character. "Oh, Miss Kangaroo, are you okay?"

The kangaroo sat up and rubbed her head. "Yeah, sure, this happens every day."

**Did you hurt her? Not like I care or anything.**

"No, Cat, she's okay. Really, she's fine."

Then, of all characters, a little brown kangaroo jumped out of her pouch. "And as a mother, she's mine!" The Young Kangaroo snapped her fingers to show that she was in charge.

I raised my arms to show that I meant no harm.

The Young Kangaroo tapped her foot and stared at me. "Are you actually the real Cat?" she asked. "Are you the _real _Cat in the Hat?"_  
_

**Nice going, hotshot. Keep up the good work.**

"Well, if I weren't the Cat, who else would I be?" I asked her. Did I blow my cameo already?

However, the Young Kangaroo just started to giggle. "That's funny, and I can agree!" By this time, her mom had stood up and took hold of her hand.

"Come on, let's go away from this rant, and that crazy elephant," she remarked, taking hold of her little girl's hand.

"Bye, I'll see you later, Cat! I'll see you later, The Cat in the Hat!"

**That was too close. Play it safe next time, okay?**

"Okay, fine, I'll do what you say, long as you keep your promise and FRICKIN' GO AWAY!"

**Now, go find Jojo and take him to Whoville so he can be shoved in with the rest of 'em.**

If this wasn't worth my own freedom, I don't know what was. "All right, I'll go get him if it means that much to you, but in a return, I expect something, too."

**Will the happiness of helping another child be enough?**

"No, Cat, that doesn't count. Cat, it just doesn't amount." I murmured to him while looking around for Jojo. Finally, I spotted a boy wearing a red baseball cap and a white shirt. He was splashing around in the water while the Whos sang their ballad.

I snuck up on him from behind in what I suppose was a Cat-like way. "Hey, little Jojo, I know it's just begun, but come on, I've got a place for you to run."

Jojo probably jumped five feet in the air when he first heard me. "Oh God, Cat, don't you scare me like that!" he exclaimed.

I, however, tried to mimic the Cat and shrug off other people's feelings. "Come on, kid, I'll take you away to a little place where you can stay!" It was certainly little, that's for sure. Like smaller-than-a-dust-speck little.

"I don't know, Cat, you trick me just for play. I don't really wanna..."

"But just think!" I told him.

A moment of silence, then he said, "Well, okay."

**You did an okay job, kid.**

I pulled off my hat, and instantly, a small portal opened up inside it. While Horton's attention was captivated by the story about the Truffula Trees, I practically threw Jojo into the portal before jumping in myself. My last thought before I jumped in was, "I just hope this leads to Whoville."

* * *

**Talia: Well, does it?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: How am I supposed to know? You're the one who did it!**

**Jojo: Hey, was that the real Cat?**

**Talia: Ah...um...**

**Cat: Why, of course it was me!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: So, are we good now?**

**Cat: Meh.**

**Talia: Remember, don't forget to review!**


	6. Chapter 5: Seuss, Singing, and Screwups

**5**

Luckily, the portal did, in fact, lead to Whoville. But when Jojo and I arrived, the whole town was empty.

"Cat? Where's everybody, Cat?" he asked, looking around for some form of life.

"I don't know," I honestly answered. "I don't see anyone like that."

**They're singing to Horton, Talia. For the love of Geisel, get over there before they finish!**

"All right, all right, I'll go over there," I murmured to the Cat.

Jojo, however, looked confused. "Who're you talking to? Go over where?"

I sighed. Nobody but I could hear the real Cat. "Come on, Jojo, let's go this way!" I cheerily remarked.

"And why're you calling me that? That's a weird name, I say!" Jojo looked a little distraught. I suddenly remembered that I - or the Cat, that is, hadn't given him his "name" yet.

I tried to get Jojo's mind off the topic before he started to Think about it. "Let's head to the Mayor's house, there's something w-I need to do."

As I took long strides ahead of Jojo, he tried to run to catch up with me. "Wait, you can't forget me! 'Cuz I'm coming too!"

**Good, everything's going according to plan. Now, once you get him inside the Mayor's house, just say your lines and stand back. Everything else will happen on its own.**

As we reached the front yard of the Mayor's place, I could see that everything was perfect. The grass was neatly mowed, the flowers in the beds grew in tidy rows, and even the dirt on the ground didn't seem dirty - like those wood chips that you put in your garden instead.

Jojo reached out to ring the doorbell, but I shook my head. "Oh, kid, don't do that, just walk right on in."

"But won't they freak out if they see me within?"

I shook my head. "Kid, it's all taken care of. It is, don't you worry. We can wait a while; it's not like we're in a hurry."

**Yeah, we kinda are.**

I wished the Cat could read my mind so I could tell him to go away without actually speaking. Geisel, this was annoying.

Wait. Geisel? I was turning into the Cat and I didn't even know it.

So Jojo and I both sat on the front porch of the Mayor's house, listening to the little chorused voices in the distance. "Here on Who, the ti-iniest planet in the sky..." they sang.

As the Whos started to head back to their homes, I knew that I needed to get Jojo in there somehow without being seen.

"Kid!" I whisper-yelled to the boy who was sitting next to me. "Outta the way! Stand up, now!"

Jojo rolled his eyes and reluctantly tried to get up on his feet before tripping and falling over. He rolled over onto his back and grabbed at his stomach. "Ow."

**Hurry up, kid! Mayor at 8:00!**

I turned to about 8:00 and saw the Mayor and his wife heading towards the house. Quickly, I reached into my hat and pulled out an invisibility cloak. That hat has a lot of useful things in it, by the way. I spread the cloak over Jojo just before the Mayors turned the corner and walked to their front gate. The Mayor pulled off his hat and turned to his wife. "So, my darling, shall we enter this place?"

Mrs. Mayor let out a giggle. "Of course, honey, of course - oh, my lace!" she suddenly gasped, noticing that the lace trimming on her dress was suddenly falling off.

I just watched as the Mayors walked straight over the cloak, trampling Jojo. However, they didn't notice when he squirmed and pulled off the cloak. Instead, Mr. Mayor just wrapped his arm around Mrs. Mayor. "So honey, what do you think about _kids_?"

"Oh, they're great, but honey, wouldn't it be best just to wait?"

**They'll have a kid, all right, and sooner than they think.**

I had to agree with the Cat. I just needed to deliver my lines to Jojo, shove him in, and sing a little after he was lectured.

"Come on kid, come on son," I said to the boy, beckoning him into the house. As he walked in, the Cat really got into me, and I snickered a little bit. "Now we're gonna have some fun."

The Mayors didn't seem to notice a boy in red and white and a six-foot-tall cat standing in their living room, so I figured that it was the perfect time.

"An invisible world, it's amazing but true! We'll leave Horton to listen and we'll zoom in on Who." I knew what was coming next, even though the boy didn't. "But guess who enters the story now?"

Oblivious to what would happen next, Jojo shrugged. "Who?"

"You!" I practically shrieked. At this time, the Mayors knew what to say and said it together in perfect time.

The Mayor, who apparently didn't know his weather, said, "Meet a tiny Who family on a small, rainy day." He didn't care if it was sunny outside, I guess.

Mrs. Mayor immediately jumped in, as if this was how she normally responded to things like this. "Mom and Dad are just home from the Who PTA."

**Here's my favorite part!**

"And here's their son, Jojo," I stated, and then the Mayors took over like he was their own son. Had I brainwashed them somehow without knowing it?

The Mayors and I all shook our heads in unison at Jojo. "'Cuz his Thinks take him places where no one has been."

**Oh, what a shame. Jojo's in trouble now.** Then the Cat began to laugh, and to tell you the truth, I couldn't help laughing with him. Was the paranoia starting to kick in? Or was the Cat just influencing me?

While the Mayors scolded their new child, I needed to confront these Thinks of my own. Jojo's were fine; they were his, and he was entitled to them. But I couldn't be Thinking these things! It would be bad for me, bad for my family, bad for everyone. My head was a no-Think zone, and it needed to stay that way, but the Cat came along and messed everything up.

I was so deep in thought (not Thinks, _thoughts_) that I came back when I heard the Mayors talking in unison. "And think some normal Thinks instead!" they both exclaimed before heading to the couch and sitting down together.

Jojo was infuriated, but he still headed up the stairs to the bathroom like he had known the house for years. After closing the door, he turned to me. "You got me in trouble! Get out! Go away!" he yelled, stomping.

I sighed and turned to open the door. "All right, I'll be going," I said to him as I stepped into the hall before running back in again. "But first let me say...

"Oh, the thinks you can think," I began to sing, knowing what Jojo's reaction would be next.

"No! Stop! Be quiet!" he yelled, trying to tune the Cat out. I had to deal with it longer than he had to, so I knew his pain.

"As you splash and you splish..." But I just couldn't stop myself. The teasing, the arrogance, that was what the Cat did. That was who the Cat was. I couldn't change that. And if I stepped out of character, my cameo would be lost and the magic would be ruined. "As you sit there and scrub, have a Think in that tub! Think of water and fish!"

This caught Jojo's attention, as I knew it would. "Fish?"

"Think of pipes in the floor leading off to a shore where the water is cool, soon your tub's not a tub, it's-"

Just then, the Mayors burst in. "Jojo, what's going on in here? Who are you talking to, boy? I want a straight answer from you, and no, not a toy," the Mayor said sternly.

**They weren't due for three more minutes! What did you do, Talia?**

I didn't know what I did. Did I forget something that I had to say?

Jojo was flustered as he tried to explain. "It...it was the Cat...The Cat in the Hat..."

"A cat? In a hat? Your Thinks are up again! I'll call Doctor McNew and see if he can explain."

Mrs. Mayor stepped in. "And I saw a brochure for a military school. It'll straighten him up; it was on there, it's a rule!"

Jojo looked from his parents to me. He glared at me and looked away.

Oh Geisel, what have I done?

* * *

**Cat: Geisel, that sounds awful!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Okay, why does everyone keep saying "Geisel"?**

**Talia: How should I know? I just- *sees Jojo***

**Jojo: You just what?**

**Talia: I...just...**

**Cat: ...ate a sandwich! I tried a bit. It was good.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: This is getting really awkward. Don't forget to review.**


	7. Chapter 6: Thinkers and Non

**6**

**What did you do, Talia?! He barely even started Thinking!**

"I know, Cat, I know," I whispered under my breath. "But I'll save this kid. Just wait and you'll see, you'll see what I did!" Then I turned my attention to Jojo.

"Be quiet! I don't want to see you anymore! You got me in trouble! Just trouble galore!" Jojo was yelling.

"Come on, Jojo, just Think a little, you fool! Your tub's not a tub, it's McElligot's Pool!"

Jojo looked confusedly at me. "A pool?"

"Look, this might be a pool like you've read of in books! Connected to one of these underground brooks! An underground river that starts here and flows right under the bathtub and then..."

"Who knows?" Jojo took over. "It's possible!

Our gazes met for a second, and we exclaimed in unison, "Anything's possible!"

I looked away and blushed. I couldn't act like this; Jojo would think that it was the Cat speaking. But yet, there was something about this kid that I liked.

While Jojo started singing about where the pool could go, he climbed into the bathtub - clothes and all - and turned on the water. He seemed too overwhelmed by his Thinks to see that his clothes were getting soaked. "...of Mrs. Umbroso, who's hanging out clothes! It's possible! Anything's possible!"

**Good job, kid. You got him Thinking again.**

"Thank you, Cat," I muttered while Jojo was going on about fish. "Thanks, Cat in the Hat."

I couldn't see the fish now, but Jojo clearly could. He was fascinated by something moving around in front of his face. However, all I could see was Jojo, the bathtub that water was flowing out of, and the tile floor that the water was pouring onto.

"Cat, should I turn off the water? Should I? He's Thinking so hard it'd be hard not to try."

**Nah, kid, just let the water flow. Remember what the Mayors will say?**

All of a sudden, Jojo started to sing once again, while looking around to all the 'fish' around him. "Oh, the sea is so full of a number of fish; if a fellow is patient, he might get his wish!"

"The sea? All the fish? Oh, silly Jojo! Just Thinking won't get you your way, ya know!" I quietly said so that Jojo wouldn't actually hear.

**Now, the Mayors are just about to arrive, so just stay out of the way of the door. Okay?**

I nodded as the water level rose to my knees. However, I didn't feel wet at all. Was I supposed to?

"It's possible! Anything's possible!" he sang. "It's possible, anything...anything..."

_BAMBAMBAM. _The Mayors were knocking on the door. "Jojo! Get out here now! I don't care why, I don't care how!" Mr. Mayor called angrily to his son. Jojo jumped out of the bathtub and waded through the deep water to open the door.

When the door opened, all the water washed out of the bathroom and down the halls and stairs, soaking the Who family. Mr. Mayor was clearly furious, while Mrs. Mayor just seemed worried about her boy.

The Mayor was yelling now, he was so infuriated. "Jojo! The tub has overflowed on the floor! The water is running right under the door!"

"The ceiling is peeling, you've flooded the den!" Mrs. Mayor cried, as if this would ruin her reputation for the five minutes that she was a mother. "Oh, Jojo, you're Thinking - you're Thinking AGAIN!"

**It's mostly over, and then the number can finish. It's all good.**

I felt guilty to just stand there and watch, but what else could I do as the Cat?

Mr. Mayor, however, started talking off-book, which surprised both the Cat and me. "Now, the General's here, General Genghis Khan Schmitz. And he's a non-Thinker. He wiped out towns with a blitz! So go pack your things, boy. You're off to a school! We just can't have you Thinking around here; that's the rule."

**Oh. So I guess that it's _not_ good.**

Jojo sighed and ran to his room, his shoes squishing on the wet carpet. I followed him into his room, where I found him shoving clothes from a dresser into a suitcase. When he looked up and saw me, I could tell that tears filled his eyes. "This is all your fault!" he screamed at me. "You got me into this mess! And you think that it's funny, nevertheless! I mean it this time, Cat, just don't follow me! I just need to be a non-Thinker, that's what I must be!"

"Come on, Jojo," I tried to reason. As the Cat, I knew that I needed to push him as far as I could without having him fall over. "Don't give up on your Thinks! Believe me, I've tried it, and oh man, it stinks!"

"_No_, you're staying here, I'm off to military school. You can sit here alone with McElligot's Pool." And with that, Jojo zipped up his suitcase and rolled it out of his room and down the hall. I could hear it go _thunky-thunk_ every time the wheels rolled off a stair. I could hear General Schmitz's loud, booming voice practically bouncing off the walls. "I'm General Genghis Khan Schmitz! I scare children out of their wits!" he yelled in a drill-sergeant type voice.

**You're just gonna sit there? Go watch the kid make a fool of himself, Talia!**

"No, Cat, don't you see? _This'_s the difference between me and you. I do what he says. You do what you want to. Have you ever just thought if you'll push him too far? If he falls, then you shouldn't thank your lucky star."

**Hey, wait until it's time for the song!**

"You know what, Cat? Fine. I'll do it, alright. But I want something back, and not just in slight."

**Okay. You get to watch Jojo do high knees. That's pretty funny.**

As I walked out and stood next to the staircase, I could see Jojo on the main level, trying to march in place as the General shouted orders at him. "Feet together! Eyes on the prize! March!" he shouted. Luckily, Jojo didn't see me, but then the General led him outside and shut the door behind himself.

The Mayors sat down together on their couch. Mr. Mayor turned to his wife and sighed. "Oh, sweetie, what did we just do?"

Mrs. Mayor sighed in agreement. "He was Mommy's little boy," she sang.

"He was Daddy's little man," her husband agreed.

As they sang through _How to Raise a Child_, I didn't know whether to stay or leave. Jojo wouldn't like it if I followed him, but the Cat did things without others' permission. Luckily, I didn't have to make that decision.

**Kid, we kinda need to get back to Nool. They're expecting us.**

I looked from the hallway window, where the General and his Cadets were marching around Jojo, to my hat, which I had just pulled off. I took a deep breath, grabbed it by the brim, and I was gone.

* * *

**MagicalAwesomeness: Hey guys, guess what?**

**Cat: What?**

**Talia: What?**

**Jojo: What?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: It's the 15th of May, the day Horton found the dust speck!**

**Jojo: It's May 16th...**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Well, it was the 15th when I wrote this!**

**Talia: So you should have told us yesterday so we knew for today!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: I can't remember everything!**

**Cat: ...like telling us to "review" instead of "rate".**

**MagicalAwesomeness: That's just one word!**

**Cat: I'd like to see you try!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Fine, then. Don't forget to _review__._**

**Cat: Eh. You tried.**


	8. Chapter 7: Please Believe in Me

**7**

Nool seemed fairly quiet compared to Who, but maybe it was because it was nighttime. Crickets chirped, stars twinkled, and the soft sound of calmness resonated through the jungle. Was this the calm before the storm? The tornado of Thinks? The flood of folly? The hurricane of hijinks? Well, this was not jolly!

Did I just _think_ in rhyme? I needed to set everything right, and quickly, so I could just get out of the Cat's body. I may have looked like the Cat, but I was still just Talia on the inside. If only someone else knew this; if only _I_ had one true friend in the universe.

As if Horton knew what I was thinking, I heard a voice ring throughout the jungle. Not a sour voice, like the Kangaroo's, or a blunt voice, like the Wickershams', but a caring voice, one that belonged to a caring elephant.

"I've been guarding this clover for over a week, getting laughed at for thinking a dust speck can speak," Horton mumbled. Of course, for an elephant, mumbling isn't a really quiet thing. I decided to follow the sounds and see what was going on with Horton and Jojo.

As I got closer, I could hear Horton's voice, not the most in-tune but still nice. "Well, let them all laugh. I'll try not to mind. For I have found something that they'll never find..." I saw a soft purple glow, and as I turned the corner, I saw Horton sitting in a patch of lightly glowing lilies - and I mean glowing, like giving off light. The flowers weren't all that different from the ones in Avatar or even Tangled, so I could have pictured them in my mind before, but now it was all just so real and right in front of me.

Horton couldn't see me, so I decided to walk up and sit beside him. Even if I was normal and not the Cat, he would still be too enamored with his clover to notice anyone arriving. "_There are secrets on a leaf, in the water, in the air..._"

**And in you, kid. There are secrets in you, too. I know that.**

"Shh!" I shushed the Cat and leaned back to listen to Horton. "_...not a person seems to know, not a person seems to care, there is no one who believes a thing I say..._"

**A-cough, a-cough,** the Cat fake-coughed.

"What do you want out of me? I'm listening to him!" I whisper-yelled to the Cat so he would shut up. "Now if you don't leave me alone, things will get grim."

**Fine, don't get your tail in a twist****.**

I glanced back to Horton, who was in the middle of the main song. "_...I've found magic, but they don't see it. They all call me a lunatic..._"

"Okay, call me a lunatic," I murmured in time with Horton. We were both smiling, but for different reasons. As I was feeling lighter again, the remembrance of the calm before the storm sunk in.

"_...'cuz I have wings, yes, I can fly! Around the room and far beyond the sky,_" Horton continued to sing to his clover with the planet of Who living on it. "_And one day soon, I know there you'll be... One small voice in the universe; One true friend in the universe... who believes in me._"

And suddenly - I don't know how, because I hadn't made any motion to teleport - I was in Who, in Genghis Khan Schmitz's Military Academy, sitting next to Jojo. He was laying in his rock-hard bed, trying to sleep, but instead he was singing under his breath.

"_I'm alone in the universe, so alone in the universe, my own planets and stars are glowing..._" he whisper-sang so as not to draw attention to the General, who was patrolling the halls in the boys' dorms. "_...No one notices anything, not one person is listening, they don't have any way of knowing..._"

This Jojo wasn't mad and desperate like he was when he was around me. This Jojo was lonely and sad, someone who just wanted a friend. I didn't expect that at all. Maybe we had more in common than I thought.

"_I have wings, yes I can fly, around the moon and far beyond the sky. Well, someday soon, you will hear my plea. One small voice in the universe, one true friend in the universe... please believe in me._"

And then I was in a space of my own, somewhere special that I knew only I could see. The Cat probably couldn't even see it. I sighed, guessing that if no one could hear me before, no one could hear me now.

"_I'm alone in the universe, so alone in the universe._

_I've been here, but you think it's not me._

_They think I'm someone I'm not. Well, I'll show them what I've got._

_Soon they'll know that it really is me._

_'Cause I have wings, yes, I can fly_

_Now I'm someone else_

_And I just don't know why_

_And one day soon, I know there might be_

_One small voice in the universe_

_One true friend in the universe_

_Who just knows it's me._"

If only.

And then I could hear Jojo and Horton's conversation. "...When you think, do you dream?" Horton was asking Jojo.

"In bright colors!" Jojo cried, as if this was the most revolutionary discovery ever.

_Do I dream?_ No, I don't dream in bright colors because I don't Think. I try not to, at least.

Meanwhile, Horton and Jojo were still talking to each other through who knows how. "...When you think, do you think you can fly to the stars?"

"Oh, little friend," Horton sighed. "No one else could have Thinks such as ours!

With that, I could hear the imaginary music crescendoing, and even though Horton and Jojo could only hear themselves singing to each other, I sang too, and to me, it was a three-part chorus.

"Yes, I have wings

"_I have wings_

"**_I have wings_**

"And I can fly

"_I can fly_

"**_Yes, I can fly_**

"Around the moon and far beyond the sky

"_And far beyond the sky_

"**_Far beyond the_ sky**

"You called my name and you set me free

"**_I need you here just to set me free_**

"One small voice in the universe

"_One true friend in the universe_

"**_One true friend in the universe_**

"Who believes in me..."

"_Who believes in me..._"

"**_Who just knows it's me..._**"

With that, as Horton and Jojo wished sweet dreams to each other, my Thinks faded away, leaving me next to a sleeping elephant.

_Did I just follow my own advice and Think?_ I'm not supposed to. All this Thinking got to my head.

As if the Cat had read my mind (which maybe he did), he responded. **You know, you don't have to hold your Thinks back. Set them free!**

"Cat, let's wait for Gertrude's solo," I said, ignoring his reaction. "It won't be that far away, you know."

**Fine. We'll wait, then. You're a great singer, by the way.**

"Thank you, Cat." I pulled off my hat and gave it a little hug. "Thanks, Cat in the Hat."

* * *

**Talia: My big singing debut!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Slow down there, Talia. I still own the copyrights to your version of the song.**

**Talia: But did I sound good?**

**Cat: No point in asking anyone besides us. Nobody else knows who _you_ are.**

**Jojo: What are you guys talking about? I don't want to be excluded!**

**Talia: Umm...**

**Cat: Umm...**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Umm... **

**Jojo: And why is the story a day late?!**

**Talia: I was kinda wondering that too.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: I was too busy. But I have two chapters today!**

**Jojo: Great, but what about Talia?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Umm... hey Jojo! Why don't you sign us off?**

**Jojo: Okay! Don't forget to review, favorite, and follow!**


	9. Chapter 8: Truths and Tricks

**8**

Even though I hadn't slept for days, I never really felt tired when I was the Cat. I never was hungry or thirsty either, and even if I _was_ hungry, what do six-foot-tall human-like Cats eat? I'm glad that I never had to use the bathroom. That would just have been weird.

"Cat? Oh, Cat in the Hat?" I called to the Cat as the sun began to rise upon the jungle of Nool.

**Yeah, kid?** he yawned.

"You can see through my eyes, right?"

**Yup. I can see whatever you see.**

"Then look at what ends the night." I turned around to see the sky turn an orangey-pink color and saw the sun crawl over the mountains. I sighed as I sat back. "It's beautiful, isn't it? The blues and the pinks..."

**See, even Mother Nature had some Thinks!**

"Are you really bringing that up again? I've told you before, I'm not completely insane!"

**You don't have to be insane to be a Thinker. Thinkers aren't always insane. Well, sometimes they are, but most of the time they aren't. And anyone can Think. Even you.**

"No." I shook my head and looked away, even though the Cat was with me everywhere.

**Do you want to tell me what happened? Why you don't Think?**

It was only sunrise, so _The One-Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz_ wasn't for a while. "Okay," I said to the Cat. "But on one condition. Just one."

**Okay, what is it?**

"No more pranking me just for fun."

**Fine, fine, okay, just get on with it.**

I sighed and told a bit of my tale. "As a little kid, I had the greatest Thinks. I would have one as quick as just two winks. My parents thought it was funny. _They_ thought it was cool. But not those other kids, the ones at school.

"'You're stupid!' they yelled. 'Eggs and ham aren't green! Elephants don't sing!' You know what I mean. Sometimes I would act sick to be away from those guys. I would try to stay away from everyone's prying eyes.

"But life was good overall, until one faithful day. One that would send my Thinks far away. One day, when I was 9, my dad came home late. I was told to go sit in the hall and just wait. As I sat on the cold hardwood floor, I could hear them fighting through the flimsy kitchen door.

"He had lost his job, and my mom got a fright. She screamed and she yelled with all of her might. I could hear the loud _thunks_ and the _crashes_ and _thumps_. He would let out yells, which would give me big jumps.

"And he never went to a job again. That was queer. He just sat around and drank lots of beer. And he raised our bills and took all our money and said that 'he was playing poker, honey!'

"He was bad at poker; the money didn't come back. My mom decided to make a plan of attack. One day she told us to pack up our bags. She sent us to the car, still holding our tags.

"She screamed at him that the marriage was through. She threw the divorce papers at him, too. We drove off from our house on that rainy, wet day. And we had no money and no place to stay.

"We scoured around for a while, at shelters and places, and each time we moved we had sad, solemn faces. I rode the bus everywhere, and used my bicycle too, but we couldn't spend much; no, that we shan't do.

"Eventually, my mom met a nice guy, and it wasn't that hard if she was willing to try. He had a big house and some money to spare; for a family like ours, something like this was rare.

"They're not married yet; my dad hasn't signed the papers. But someday maybe he will, turning their marriage to vapors. But for now, everything is kinda okay. So about my life, well, that's all I have to say."

**Whoa. That's deep.**

I couldn't help but giggle. Yes, the Cat may have been out to get me, but he was kind of a funny guy. "So, what is _your_ story? What is your tale?" I asked the Cat as the sky turned more blue and less pink and orange.

**I could talk about it, but not every detail.**

"Okay, okay, I'll let you be. But what can you release? Can you please tell me?"

**Well, sit down and hang on, kid. I've got some shocking news.**

"Well, what is it? What is it, Cat?"

**First of all, I am different, but I assume you knew that.**

I shrugged, hoping the Cat could see me.

**The second thing you should know is that I'm not 100% feline. There are elements of something else inside, probably. But the real magic is behind my hat and, well, I don't know anything about it. I found it one day, just sitting there. I didn't know where it came from or whose it actually was. It might have been the only evidence I had of the last big musical journey through Seuss, and now I - or you, that is - carry on with Jojo.**

"Well, that didn't answer anything," I stated. It really didn't. "But at least you didn't start to sing."

**That can be arranged, you know.**

Now that the sun was almost fully up, I climbed down the tree and headed deeper into the jungle where Gertrude would sing her ditty. And sure enough, I did hear a song being played on a guitar nearby. I followed the sound of the guitar strums and soon started to hear singing.

"...One droopy-droop feather was all that she had..." she sang as I snuck closer and closer. Finally, I pushed a branch aside to see a bird playing guitar; unfortunately, it wasn't the right bird.

"...and oh, that one feather made Mayzie so sad."

Mayzie? Mayzie had tail feathers to spare! It was Gertrude who wanted feathers!

But Mayzie did seem a little paler, and that matched her pale pink dress. In the back she had one drooping salmon-colored feather. She looked like a bird bridesmaid. A birdsmaid.

"...a tail that simply wasn't meant to catch the eye of an elephant, the one feather tail of Miss Mayzie la Bird..."

On cue, fast Latin music started to play, and the Birdgirls walked out from behind a few trees. Then came - GERTRUDE?!

Gertrude had a skimpy yet flouncy teal colored dress, unlike her regular faded blue ballgown. She swayed her hips as she walked and when she turned, Mayzie began to gawk at her role model's floor-touching tail.

Gertrude smirked and tossed her long hair, something that the old Gertrude would never have done. She broke into song and while she was singing the opening for the number, I felt really worried.

"What happened here? Cat, what's going on now?"

**Well, it's a pretty funny story; I know the reason how. See, whenever you make an unauthorized teleportation (one without holding your hat), it can have strange effects on the characters, like two characters switching bodies. Looks like you'll have to switch 'em back, kid.**

"What?! Cat, I can't do this alone! I need help!"

**All right, if you need me, just send me a yelp.**

I looked back to the scene to see Gertrude in the middle of the chorus. "...Amazing Gertrude! As feathered as feathered can be now! Amazing Gertrude! It was all for sale!"

It was, and that was why I was worrying. How did Gertrude grow just the right amount of feathers? Why did Mayzie pluck them out? And how did all of this happen without either one of their knowing?

The Cat wanted me to do this on my own, though, and as newly promoted Cat in the Hat, I needed to establish a stance for myself - that I could accomplish feats of greatness on my own. And so, knowing the tasks that I already needed to set right, I added a few more to my list: pluck Gertrude's feathers, grow Mayzie's out to just the right length, and make the two of them switch back. Of course, I also had to prevent Jojo from running away and keep the story going properly, all with the Cat himself kicking me from behind.

This was going to be harder than I thought. I should have just told myself how lucky I was.

* * *

**Talia: What is going on here? Five days?! That's like an eternity!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Calm the firetruck down, Talia! I have a new philosophy. Three days per chapter. I shoot for 1200 words a chapter. Each extra day results in an extra 100 words for the next chapter being released (4 days = 1300 words, 5 days = 1400 words and so on).**

**Jojo: That sounds okay, but what if you have to work on something else instead?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: If I do have to transfer to another project for a while (coughWattpadPewDiePiefanficcough) I will apologize dearly and post many chapters quickly. Okay? Are you calm now?**

**Cat: Why would Talia be, with everything going on with Mayzie and Gertrude and Jojo? I, on the other hand, am very relaxed.**

**Talia: Cat...grr...**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review!**


	10. Chapter 9: She'll Have the Biggest Tail

9

Mayzie's tail was short. That was a problem. Gertrude's tail was long. That was a problem too. And of course, there was the fact that Mayzie was flying to Dr Dake's office right now, and I didn't know what to do. Should I pretend to be Dr Dake's nurse and tell her that Dr Dake wasn't in? Or should I just be Dr Dake and give her the pills?

**It's up to you, kid. Just remember that if you make the wrong decision, the whole Seuss dimension will be thrown into utter turmoil.**

"Oh, just that? Thank you, Cat." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I needed to get to the office, and fast.

**Here, kid, I'll help you out. Grab the brim.**

I shut my eyes and grabbed the brim of the red-and-white striped hat. I felt a warm breeze whip through my fur and when I opened my eyes, I was in a small, quaint office in a tree bordering a lake.

"Yoo hoo! Mr Doctor!" I heard a voice belonging to Mayzie call. "I need something of your proctor!"

I dashed into the operation room in the back and shut the door. Then I sighed and wiped my face. She would be here any moment now...

"Mr Doctor, oh please, do you know of some kind of pill that would make my tail grow?" I heard Mayzie call.

I gave a little tug on my tux jacket, which turned into a white lab coat with feathers sticking out of the pockets. I guess I was the doctor, then.

As I headed back into the waiting room where an excited Mayzie La Bird was standing, only one thought pulsed through my mind:_ I need to buy myself some time._

I took a deep breath. Yeah, she really wanted me to give her an answer. "_So so sagt dër doktor, dat ist obsurd, deïn kleiner schwanz, ist gerard richtich für einen vogel ve dich._"

I can speak German? I guess I don't know my own strengths!

**You're welcome, kid. Don't get too cocky.**

My mind was racing too fast to even get angry. If I don't give Mayzie the pills, she'll get angry and have a temper tantrum. But if I do give her the pills, her tail will grow monstrously long and it'll be hard for me to clip them down to the right length. Should I just tell it like it was?

Mayzie tilted her head and furrowed her brow. "Huh?"

The least I could do was translate to English, I guess, but still with a German accent so I didn't break character. "Tut tut, said the doctor, such talk is absurd, for your small tail is just right for your kind of bird!"

What did I just say?! I meant to tell her that the pills were in the back room and that I would go get them!

**Thar she blows!** the Cat yelled in my mind, and I looked up to see a furious Mayzie turning purple with rage. She opened her mouth and let out a scream that probably could be heard for miles around. "Whaaaaaaaat?!"

She stomped her feet and yelled, looking more like a toddler who didn't want to do something. "Then Mayzie had tantrums! She raised such a din..." Uh-oh. I knew where this was going.

Mayzie ran up to me and shook me by my jacket, managing to pull a few tufts of fur out as well. "...that finally the doctor just had to give in!" She leaned in close enough to me that I could practically smell the birdseed on her breath. She panted heavily and was almost sweating. It was more than a little scary.

In my sudden panic, I couldn't think straight, and the words just fell out of my mouth. "All right, all right! Pillberry bush, _meinen güter_!"

I scurried into the back room, where a small bush with brightly colored pills growing from it was sitting in a pot. Quickly, I lifted up the pot and pushed the door open to see a frantically delighted Mayzie grinning. I sat the pot down in front of her quickly and dashed away as she started ripping pills off the bush.

There was a little window in the back room that showed the entire waiting area. That was what I used to watch Mayzie's feathers grow. Mayzie was just a pill-chugging machine; she didn't even need water to eat the pills, she just swallowed them down and shuddered a moment after.

Suddenly, Mayzie stood up perfectly straight and clenched her rear. "What was that?" she asked herself. "Something's itching me! What was that? Something's twitching me!"

I shrugged a little. "Some side effects may be included."

The Cat started to crack up in my mind. **That's funny! But she couldn't hear it; your voice was diluted!**

Meanwhile, I was watching magic in the making. I could see tail feathers beginning to grow out of her rear. The feathers were all different colors, too - some were hot pink, some were orange, and some were even a bright red. I glanced away to cough, and when I looked back, the Birdgirls were there, all doing the background dance.

Mayzie was obviously excited about her newly-found featherly bulk. "Amazing Mayzie!" she sang, grinning broadly while trying to get a glimpse at her still-growing tail.

The Birdgirls didn't seem too excited, like they never had liked Mayzie in the first place. "Just look at the tail she is sporting," they sang sarcastically, as if they didn't want to this but were forced to. Maybe they were, I don't know.

"Amazing Mayzie!" Mayzie continued to belt out her solo, not paying any attention to the Birdgirls' expressions and tones of voice. However, she did pay attention to me, enough to look up and sing "Thank you, Doctor Dake!"

The Birdgirls all rolled their eyes in unison, as if one singing, dancing, self-absorbed bird was enough. "_Thanks,_ Doc," they said together, one of them making a gagging motion with her finger. "...amazing Mayzie," they continued to sing.

Mayzie, realizing what she could do with her feathers, almost screamed, "And hopefully, I'll impress Horton!" As the Birdgirls told her how amazing she was one more time, Mayzie picked up the bush, now starting to look a little crazy. "One more pill will do me good, yes it will! One more, one more, one more pill..." Every time she said "one more", Mayzie picked a pill off the Pillberry bush and swallowed it down. Doesn't the kid know anything about overdosing?

Now even the Birdgirls were becoming impressed with Mayzie's huge tail. It draped onto the floor and wrapped around the waiting room, curling around various things in the room and twisting around itself like morning glory. The Birdgirls, still disliking Mayzie but a little less now, sang, "Soon she'll have the biggest tail..."

As the Birdgirls and Mayzie continued to sing, I watched the tail start to droop out of the open doorway and snake down the tree. This was way too long of a tail for Mayzie.

She finished the number with an ear-piercing shriek that could probably have knocked the treehouse office down with its force.

In the silence that followed the last chord of the song, the Cat's voice echoed in my mind.

**Kid, now her tail is too long, and its growth can't be stemmed or cut short. You knew that, right?**

I curled and uncurled my fingers. I could feel the color in my face turning. If I could physically - and metaphysically too, for that matter - put the Cat in a headlock, that was exactly what I would have done. "You know what, Cat? This is just it. I am getting really tired of all your shi...zzle," I said quickly, fixing the word at the last minute.

**Whoa, here come all the bad words! You must be so-o-o-o-o hardcore, **the Cat said jokingly. Did it even surprise me anymore that he didn't ever stop joking and kidding around?

I tried to shrug it off, though. "Come with me, Cat. It'll do you well. But we've got a great big story to tell."

Ten minutes later, Jojo was gawking at the story I had just told. "You mean that works here? Tails grow from pills?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "Take them and you'll get frills." I was trying to lead Jojo to the lines that were written in the script. Shoving them into his mouth verbally. "But even though it got stepped on, the tail never broke. It was lengthy, all right, and that was no joke."

Jojo thought for a second, then looked up. "So Mayzie is happy, right? Her tail's nice and strong."

Meh. Close enough. I proudly spoke my big transition. "Well, kid, fasten your seat belt, 'cuz now things go-"

"PRIVATE MAYOR! UP OFF OF YOUR BED! TIME FOR THE NO-THINKING DRILL! WE'LL GET THAT IN YOUR HEAD!" The General yelled. His voice boomed so loudly that it seemed to echo like a cave and bounce off the walls.

Jojo stood up and waved a barely noticeable "goodbye" with his hand. Then he looked straight forward and tried not to look at me again.

I sighed, disappointed about not being able to end my line properly. "...wrong," I quietly finished.

But then a chill ran down my spine, and I could hear some faint, yet clear, chatter resonating through the jungle that was Nool. It didn't look like anyone else in the boys' dorm could hear it but me. I guess that it was just a Cat thing.

"THIRTY PUSH-UPS, LADIES!" the General continued to shout orders. "I WANT TO SEE YOU SWEAT! AND NO, THIS ISN'T OVER! THIS AIN'T OVER YET!"

Now there was a sort of a drum beat that seemed to tap into my own heart. _Boom...boom...boom..._

As much as I wanted to stay and talk to Jojo, I could see that he had some work to do. So slowly - and a little rejectfully - I grabbed the brim of my hat and went to Nool so I could monkey around.

* * *

**Jojo: THIRTEEN DAYS. YOU'RE SCARING ME NOW.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: I'm sorry! *whimpers sadly***

**Talia: Aw, don't cry! *comforts***

**MagicalAwesomeness: *smiles* Ha! I was only acting!**

**Cat: Up top!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: With pleasure!**

**Jojo: But what happened?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Things happen. That's my excuse. I can't publish a new chapter every three days, and I realized that now. So from now on, five days to a week for a chapter. But school gets out in two weeks and then I'll be able to go full-time writing. Just... it'll be hard multitasking.**

**Talia: Excuse me?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: I made a prior commitment with my bros, and I need to stick with them. So a couple more chapters, and then I'll need to take a break for a while. _Capisce_?**

**Jojo: Huh?**

**Cat: Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review! It really helps her! Not me, of course... *scoffs hysterically***

**MagicalAwesomeness: *rolls eyes* See you whatever.**


	11. Chapter 10: Monkeying with the Chase

**10**

There was a stirring in Nool; I could feel it. It ran down my spine in a cold chill, like someone had dropped an ice cube down my back. A rebellion against the fool was beginning. And I knew who it started with.

The Wickersham brothers weren't the smartest monkeys, but they knew how to stir someone up. They all looked more like a gang than a family, but hey, who was I to judge? The Wicks seemed like the group of boys hanging by the corner at my school - the ones who would dare each other to do stupid things and then try to top them. I could definitely see them with sagging jeans and sideways baseball caps.

And then there was the music. I was sure that I was the only one who could hear it. The teal of the trumpets, the green of the saxophones, the heavy gray beating of the bass drum that rocked through my heart. No one else could hear the loud blasting or see as many of the colors as I could.

Wait. Colors? Had the Cat slipped me some drugs while I was sleeping? This was getting to be too much. As the Wicks were all gathering together in a monkey-like way, I stepped away from everyone else and towards a small tree in the corner. The Cat was scaring me now.

"There's a rustle in the bushes..." one of the monkeys began to sing.

"Cat!" I hissed. "What did you do now?! I see colors in sounds and I don't know how!"

**What colors? Those aren't my doing.**

"Oh, come on, Cat! Don't lie, don't be mean! I see them in music now; yellow, red, green! There's orange and purple and black and gray, too! Not to mention turquoise, gold, bronze, and blue!"

**Okay, I get it. That's a lot of colors. But I swear to Geisel, I didn't cause that. You did.**

"Cat, what are you saying? Are you trying to imply that I'm taking drugs, because that is a lie!" I whisper-yelled. I've been doing that a lot now, it seems.

"Something big is getting nearer, something big is coming through..." the monkeys sang together, gradually growing louder.

I sighed heavily. "We'll discuss this later, Cat, but don't expect to get off easy like that." With that cleared out of the way, I turned to the Wickershams, who were a starting to sing the chorus. "Come on! We're gonna monkey, monkey around," they sang in unison, all doing a dance together. "Come on! We gotta monkey, monkey around! Come on, we gotta monkey, ooh, we gotta monkey around!"

I heard a slight rustle from the trees behind me, and I turned around to see Horton romping through the forest, mumbling to his clover. When he saw the Wicks, sensing danger, he turned around and tried to head back the way he came. "The Wickershams," he mumbled, trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. But the monkeys were too quick and latched onto him.

Horton looked very uncomfortable with three new guests - monkeys, no less - staring at his clover. "Uh, hello."

"Well, it's bigger than a breadbox," one monkey reasoned in a teasing way.

"Hey, it's wider than a whale!" a second monkey exclaimed.

The third monkey snickered and grinned. "Peanut butter breath and scared to death from head to tail!"

I sat down, knowing that this would be a show.

**If only we had popcorn...** the Cat sighed.

"So you're still talking to dust!" the first monkey yelled. "Oh, _that's_ hot!"

"A dust speck that's all full of Whos, _who are nots!_"

"There aren't any Whos, why, I don't hear a sound!"

"Come on!" they said to each other excitedly. "We gotta monkey, monkey around!" With that, one monkey snatched Horton's clover out of his trunk and ran off into the jungle. The other monkeys practically cackled and ran off.

"Hey, give that back!" Horton yelled in shock, stomping after the Wickersham brothers. "Stop!"

A teal trumpet crescendoed and led into a heavy yet nonconstant beat.

And then there was the kangaroo. She was sour, all right, but for a moment she was a narrator, telling about the chase that was ensuing. "Up out of the jungle, up into the sky," she sang, her nasal voice sticking out among the many that existed in Nool.

"Up over the mountains..."

**Kid, you're gonna need to get going if you're gonna make it in time.**

Now the Cat didn't even seem instructive anymore, like now he was just giving a reminder or a heads-up. So I had practically no problem with pulling off my hat and being teleported once again. This time, however, I ended up in a sleek gray helicopter flying over the jungle that I was just in.

"You're on in five," a voice of a man flying the helicopter called to me.

"Thanks, Marty," I responded, not quite sure of how I knew his name. But just then, a red light flashed on the news camera that was in front of me, and I was on.

I coughed and cleared my throat before looking directly into the camera and giving a big grin. "This is the Cat in the Hat and we're live from Skycam 5. Folks, the Jungle of Nool is one heck of a drive! We've got monkeys backed up to the 302, I'd find alternate routes if I were you!" I could hear the kangaroo singing the next lines, but I still stared at the camera lens and said cheerily, "Back to you, Phil."

With the thought of being on television lifted off my back, I glanced out the window to the jungle below. It seemed so tiny from up here, so... insignificant. And yet, to this world, it was the difference between normality and destruction. The Cat had a lot on his shoulders, and he still kept a bouncy attitude about it. I was surprised that he didn't go crazy after a while. I had to clean my room and do my homework. He had to keep the dimensions - and the in-betweens, for that matter - all safe and running normally. It really put things into perspective.

**Good job, kid. Now get back there so you can tell everyone how lucky they are.**

I rolled my eyes and smiled before picking up the hat off the floor of the helicopter once again and vanishing from the helicopter.

"...and into the forest, with thousands of trees!" Everyone in Nool seemed to be engaged in the song now. Everyone but Horton, that is. He was running past Sneetches on beaches and sour kangaroos. When I opened my eyes for what felt like the millionth time, I was in a small, grassy field where Horton and the Wickershams were.

Two of the three monkeys were holding onto one of Horton's back legs to keep him from charging, and the third waved the clover in front of the elephant's face tauntingly. "Still chasing your dust? Why, it's safe as can be," the monkey latching onto Horton's left leg grunted. I don't know how they could have held on so well, but they somehow managed.

"We're monkeys to trust..." the monkey grabbing Horton's right leg strained to murmur.

The monkey holding the clover, however, felt no pain, and waved the clover so close to Horton that he could hear the Who yells. "...or don't you agree?"

But just then, with a sudden jolt of energy, Horton burst out of the grasp of the monkeys and snatched the clover with his long, elephantine trunk. "Ha!" he yelled, proudly holding up his prized possession.

Then the monkeys began to back away, trembling in the fact that their plan didn't work. "All right, all right!" the first monkey sheepishly remarked. "Take it, we don't care!"

"Y-yeah," the third monkey said, holding up his hands to show he meant no harm. "We weren't gonna harm it, we promise, we swear!" With that, the monkeys chased each other off and back towards Nool.

Meanwhile, a clearly ecstatic Horton was talking to his clover once again. "Whos? Are you all okay? Oh, please, please answer me! I don't have all day!"

I could hear a male voice clearly from the clover, even though I was standing about twenty feet away. "Yes, Horton, we're fine, but dear Who, save our grace, for General Schmitz wants to blow up the whole entire place! We're going to war, so I must say, my dear friend, that this crazy, wild man, will bring Who to its end."

Horton let out a large huff. "Oh, come on, Mr Mayor, don't worry, don't fret! Don't feel bad, or get angry or upset! You could have been roasted, fried, battered, or cursed, because - and trust me when I say this - things could be worse."

**Hey, that's our line!**

Yeah, it was our line, but we were gonna sing it after the clover fell.

Wait a second. The clover never fell.

_The clover never fell._

The Cat wasn't going to be happy about this.

* * *

**Cat: Happy about what?**

**Talia: Oh, n-nothing, Cat. Don't worry.**

**Jojo: Seven days. Not as bad as before, I guess.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Yeah, I've just been writing for my bros more lately.**

**Jojo: Okay, explain to me. What are bros?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Not what. Who. Bros are people, and there are about 8-and-a-half million of them in the world. I'll tell you more later.**

**Jojo: Okay.**

**Talia: Don't forget to review, favorite, and follow!**


	12. Chapter 11: Things Noticed and Unnoticed

**11**

Horton was happy with the way things turned out. I, on the other hand, wasn't. What would the Cat say when he found out? He would pop in and out of my mind now, and when he returned, who knows what in Seuss he might say!

I sat alone in the middle of the grassy field where no one was anymore, just me and my Thinks - no, they weren't Thinks. They weren't. Frankly, I didn't get why the Cat wanted me to Think, anyway. Thinking wasn't like thinking. Lowercase-t-thinking was logical, formal, and orderly. Uppercase-T-Thinking was wild, unpredictable, and just overall not useful. Thinking never helped anyone, except maybe Dr. Seuss himself. But even Theodore didn't Think all the time. He wrote newspaper articles and war cartoons for, like, fifteen years. Look where it got him.

I reached into the file folder that was my mind and pulled out the file with my To-Do list. It was getting pretty long, and I hadn't crossed anything off yet.

_To-Do:_

_-Get out of the Cat's body_

_-Keep Jojo in military school_

_-Get Jojo to not be so angry at me_

_-Switch Gertrude and Mayzie back_

_-Clip Mayzie's feathers_

_-Make sure to throw the clover into the patch_

_-Sing How Lucky You Are_

_-Get eggs and milk_

I crossed off the last one in my mind. That didn't seem so important now.

The other ones were, though. It seemed like just too much for one person to handle, even if that person was the Cat. What I needed were helpers, workers if you please. I needed...

That's it!

A box. I had to find a large red box. With a hook on it. And a sort of a flap door. They would be in there.

But where might I be able to find such a box? Surely, there wasn't one around here. There wasn't much of anything around here, for that matter.

What was a Cat to do? I couldn't go too far from here or I'd never make it back to this exact spot again. The hat didn't have a back button. But I couldn't create things out of nothing. That was impossible.

**Or was it?**

He was back, but at this point, I didn't even care. I knew what I had needed to do to catch up with everything, and even though it would contradict everything I believed in before, I needed to do it.

So I sat down in the grassy field and took off my hat. Setting it next to me, I leaned back and took in a deep breath. It had been so long that I had almost forgotten how to Think. Almost.

There were two types of Thinks: singing Thinks and non-singing Thinks. Being the Cat now, I had decided that I was going to reestablish myself in singing Thinks. So, fudging with the words a little bit, I began to re-sing my little ditty to myself.

_"Oh, the Thinks you can Think_

_Oh, the Thinks you can Think_

_When you need a few friends_

_Like a sock-wearing fox_

_Think up a big red box_

_Where the fun never ends_

_If you open your mind_

_Oh, the Thinks you will find _

_Popping out of thin air_

_Soon your great big red box_

_Will be right..._

"There!" I finished, opening my eyes and sitting up. As my vision cleared of all the Thinks that I probably shouldn't have Thunk up, my red box was there, sitting about twenty feet away from me. It was about four feet tall and in a cube shape. And it had a flap door and a hook keeping the door closed, just like I had wanted. When I placed my hand (or paw, I guess) on it, I could feel it trembling with excitement. Slowly, I reached towards the hook, ready to unlock it-

"Hey! You!"

Startled, I whipped around to see a panting Mayzie staring at me. Apparently, she didn't make the connection that I was Dr Dake, because she was looking at me like she had never seen me before.

Mayzie, breathless from the chase, had her hands on her knees as she tried to recompose herself. "Have you seen my Horton, my big elephant?"

_Her_ Horton? Horton was hers now? I didn't know that Horton was a possessive object.

"He just left with the clover. By the way, he is elegant."

Obviously angry that she and Horton kept crossing paths, Mayzie had a small fit. "Urgh! Why won't he notice me?! I see him through and through! If only, when I noticed him, he'd notice me too!" Then, sadly, she slumped into a heap of feathers on the ground.

Leaning on the big red box, I sighed. So this was what love was. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, life's hard for a bird. The struggles of love, when you just can't be heard."

"I know, right?! Life sucks when you're me!" Mayzie whimpered.

Knowing that obviously, things could be worse, I scoffed. "Girl, stop whining, you're as lucky as could be." But I did feel a little bad for Mayzie. It wasn't her fault that Horton didn't like her. It was mine. So, with a sigh, I walked away from my box and sat down next to the depressed bird-child. "It's taken all your courage to approach him, not to mention all your stamina to follow him across the hills and deserts but you feel as if you're ready to confess to him the feelings that you've hidden with great diligence and labor..."

Mayzie perked up a little bit at the chance to sing and immediately started to as well. "...behind the facade of his odd little next-door neighbor!" Then, pausing slightly, she looked around frantically. "Is there a guitar around here?"

Gertrude knew how to play guitar. Mayzie didn't. I guess that that was one more thing I needed to change. "There is now," I said to her, reaching into my hat and pulling out a vintage polished guitar. I swear to Geisel, that hat was like Mary Poppins' carpet bag or Hermione's rucksack or the TARDIS - bigger on the inside.

Handing the guitar to Mayzie, I began to back up towards the box.

**Now, just open it up and get everything done!**

Rolling my eyes as Mayzie began to strum, I tiptoed through the grass the fifteen or so feet to the box. Quietly, I reached for the hook and slipped it out, and the door started to fall open.

"_My eyes are too small, I have very large feet,_" Mayzie sang to who knows who. "_And I'm not very proud of my pitiful..._" Then, to my surprise (and my ears' as well), she let out a loud screeching sound that seemed to vibrate my soul. "...TWEET!"

I could see a fairly friendly face poke out from a crack in the door and a whiz of blue hair.

"_But I've now got a tail that is something to see..._"

"One-hundred-one, one-hundred-two, one-hundred-three," I muttered to myself, counting the seconds for no apparent reason.

Mayzie sighed and continued to strum. "_Oh-h-h-h, notice me, Horton, feather by feather, this is your next-door neighbor calling!_"

Meanwhile, I could hear chatter escaping from the box. As the opening became large enough to climb through, the Things were able to do so. Their cotton-candy-colored hair still frizzed up perfectly, like they popped out of a book. Maybe it was because they did.

Mayzie was strumming the guitar loudly now. Golden strings flowed through my mind as she continued to sing. "_Notice me, Horton! Put down that clover! This is your next-door neighbor calling! There's a new leaf your neighbor's turned over..._" Then Mayzie stood up and started to walk around, her rainbow-colored tail swirling behind her.

**So, kid, you got help, I see? Frankly, I would have done the same thing...**

I felt like I needed to tell the Cat a quick "thank-you". But Mayzie was singing. How could I...

Sitting next to my two blue-haired friends, I sang Horton's part on the song Mayzie was playing. "_I was just a no-one only yesterday... You showed up and showed me something more..." _Giving a small laugh about the next line, I really hoped that this would calm the Cat before I told him what happened. "_Now I've become a someone who has someone to believe in and to be there for..._" I stopped singing there, but Mayzie kept going.

"_I will not give up hope! I was hooked from the start when I noticed your kind and your powerful heart!" _Mayzie was sure one dramatic chick. _"So notice me, Horton... Notice me, Horton... Notice me, Horton! The way I notice you..."_

Mayzie stood up, sighing and turning to me. "Again, which way did Horton go?"

"He walked that way," I said, pointing to a faint jungle in the distance on my left. "But how far, I don't know."

The bird nodded a quick "thanks" to me ants ran off, her long tail dragging yards behind her. Turning to the Things, my Cat mind was racing. "So..." I said to them. "Can you two run fast?"

Even though the Things couldn't speak, they could make sounds and understand what I was saying, like a form of mutism. Grinning, they nodded in unison, as if there was nothing they'd rather be doing. Then again, there probably wasn't.

"Great! Then this is going to be a blast! Now, here is what I need you to do; go find Horton and bring him back. I'll have a reward for you."

Happy to do their job (that made one of us), Thing 1 and Thing 2 ran off together in the general direction of the jungle of Nool. As they chased each other away, I heard the Cat's voice return. **Hey, kid. Did you enjoy singing along with Mayzie?**

In the time that I used to ignore the inevitable, I thought about the Cat's voice. You wouldn't think that his voice would match up with someone like... him. His voice was deep and calm, yet in some ways, overly excited and practically ecstatic. I know that he was portrayed by Mike Myers in the live-action movie and Martin Short in the kids' show, but the real Cat seemed different. He was smoother, I guess. Like he got all the ladies. Of course, he wouldn't act like that when I told him...

"Hey, Cat? There's something I need to say," I said, trying to sound as cool and collected about this as possible.

**What is it, kid?**

"I... um..." I couldn't bring myself to tell him. It would break his heart to know that I failed him. "I just hope you have a wonderful day."

**Thanks, I guess? Anyway, where's Gertrude's nest?**

"Calm down, Cat. It'll be a while. Three million clovers to look through. He'll search for his in style." As the Cat seemed reassured that it would be okay, I wondered if I should tell him. Then a voice - my own Thinking voice - talked to me, so quietly that not even the Cat could tell. _Don't tell him just yet. Wait a little. Things will smooth out._

Maybe my Thinking voice was right. I mean, it wasn't _that_ huge of a deal, was it? How bad could things be?

* * *

**Jojo: Did you leave yet?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Calm down. Not 'till the end of Act 1.**

**Jojo: Well, get me out of this military fast! I can't take that place much longer!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: I'll try.**

**Cat: What's wrong, Talia?**

**Talia: N-nothing. Everything's okay.**

**Cat: But-**

**Talia: EVERYTHING'S FINE!**

**Cat: *silence***

**Jojo: *silence***

**MagicalAwesomeness: *momentary silence* Anyway, don't forget to follow, favorite, and review this story! The more feedback, the better! Maybe one day, when I work alongside Lynn Ahrens and Eric Idle, I'll show them this!**

**Cat: Go to sleep.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Why? I mean, it's pretty late, but...**

**Cat: The only way that'll happen is _in your dreams_.**

**Jojo: That was pretty funny.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Ugh.**


	13. Chapter 12: A Million More To Go

**12**

I had to tell him _sometime_. It wasn't like he wouldn't find out on his own. I learned what the Cat was like over the last few months. If he wanted information, he could get it in his jokingly cunning way. And even then, everything would unravel sooner or later. I, for one, hoped that it would happen later.

**Three million clovers is a long time to wait, kid. What are we to do until then?**

"We?" I asked only semi-curiously. "You mean, there's a 'we'?"

**Uh, yeah. I mean, what else would _we_ be?**

Suddenly realizing that "we" meant nothing more than a partnership, I felt a little sheepish. But even if it was nonexistent, three million clovers was a long time to just sit there. I told him my story. He kinda told me his. What else was there to talk about?

"So how did Dr Seuss get here, anyway? Was something different about him? Was he going astray?"

**Well, _I_ saw him first when he was in college, but I didn't introduce him to this place until some fight that was going on in your world.**

Dr Seuss lived from 1906 to 1991. I remembered that well when I was researching the Cat. So the only fight he would have fought in would be- "So, do you mean World War II?"

**Yup. At that point, his life began to go askew. So I did what any normal person would do to help - I brought him here. It's an escape from harsh, cold reality, yeah? At least for people from your world, it is.**

I didn't know if I could agree with it being a complete escape from trouble, but I didn't say anything. I was still a little down about what I needed to tell him.

**You know, kid, you're different. I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like you.**

The Cat seemed unexpectedly somber all of a sudden. "Where did all the exclamation points go? I mean, you're the Cat; you're all happy, ya know?"

I could tell that the Cat was clearly flustered by this sudden question. **Ah...um...I, uh...** he stuttered, the way people did in the movies when they were in love.

Love? No way. Impossible. The Cat didn't like me more than I liked him. As far as I knew, the Cat was asexual. He couldn't like me. Could he?

No. He was just at a loss for words. That used to happen to me a lot. My brain would freeze up and I couldn't think or Think. I thunk about not thinking about thinking about both Thinks and thinks. Think-ception.

**Whoa, what's wrong, kid? You got all quiet!**

He put the exclamation point in that time on purpose, I'm sure. Was the whole "happy on the brink of insane" thing a lie? Was he just acting this whole time? Was the Cat a different guy underneath the whole time?

Geisel, I was going insane here. I don't even know why I Thunk. Or thunk about Thinking. The Things probably just ran away and betrayed me. And then I'm alone in the universe... again. "It's fine, Cat. Really, it is. Don't worry. It's okay; no need to get up in a flurry."

**I wasn't getting in a flurry or a tizzy or anything. Are you sure you're okay?**

"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine." I glanced away, even though I knew that there was no such thing as "away". I curled my knees up to my chest and sighed. "Cat, are you... um...?"

**What is it, Talia?**

I noticed how he said my name instead of "kid". "Are you happy, ya know, with where you are today?"

**Uh, w-why wouldn't I be? I mean, I, uh, I have fun all day! Being the Cat is such a fun thing to be, right?**

The Cat was obviously flustered about something. What was it, though? I mean, I knew what it was, but I didn't _know_ what it was. Okay, this was getting to be really confusing.

I just needed to forget about the whole thing and move on. I took a deep breath and sighed. "Right."

I picked at the grass near my feet. It was green and luscious, growing wherever it wanted to. Nobody could tell grass what to do. The grass did what it wanted.

Am I doing what I want? It seems like everywhere I go, the Cat is there, making decisions for me and telling me what to do. Why didn't I just do what I wanted to? What was stopping me?

Well, society, for one thing. I had to keep the story running - that was my obligation, my purpose. If everything went out of whack, then I couldn't return home. Where I belonged.

**...Kid! What's your answer, kid?!**

I returned from my thoughts and realized that the Cat was talking to me. "Huh? What did you say again?" I asked, half-sheepish that I didn't hear what he said.

**Okay, fine, then I will explain. I asked you if you wanted to check on Jojo; ya know, see how he's doing at the school.**

I needed to tell him about the clover now, before Horton got too behind on his counting. "Well, actually, there's something that I need to say. I've been putting it off for a bit of the day. I wanted to say it earlier, Cat..."

**What happened?** the Cat asked worriedly. **Did you step on my tail?**

"Oh, it's worse than that."

**Worse than that? Well, what could it be?**

I stared at my furry feet and sighed. "The clover didn't fall. I'm really sorry."

Silence followed. I could just tell how angry the Cat was by how long his pauses were. "But, before you get mad, I can tell you why. I stuck to the story! I really did try. But for being an elephant, Horton was too fast. The Wickershams' brilliance just didn't last! I tried to take it back from him, really, I did! Cat, I can barely stand this now. I'm only just a kid."

Frankly, I expected him to get angry. I expected him to throw a small fit about how I wasn't responsible enough or how the whole universe was going to implode in a fiery inferno. It was even a possibility that he would sulk or something that neves never seen him do. But the one thing I wasn't prepared for was the very thing that happened next.

**...Oh. Well, I mean, you tried your best, didn't you? You gave it your all. You can fix this, don't worry. Just like you can fix everything else. You know, to accomplish this stunning feat, distractions are just pain to the process, and I probably have been distracting you from completing your tasks. So to help you out, I'll leave you alone for a while. Feel free to figure this out on your own.**

While utterly shocked from the Cat's happy tone, I began to comprehend what he actually was saying. "Y-you mean, you're just going to leave me? I'm not done, I promise! I've got more I can be!"

**I get it. I'm too much of a distraction. I'll be taking a small vacation, sort of, and leaving you to finish without the drawback that I am. So... see ya.**

"No, Cat, please! I'll prove it to you! I'll do whatever you say and what you want me to do! Stop!" I yelled to him, but it was no use. He tuned me out and began to walk out of my mind and off into the distance. I heard the imaginary silence, the imaginary door slamming, and the very real silence that reminded time that I was only me. I wasn't the Cat, but it was what I was supposed to be very soon.

My mentor left me. This was all a test. Can I save myself and everyone else? Earlier, I didn't have enough time to myself, and now I had too much. The clock was ticking.

Having the clover would be a good start. But Horton and that thing were inseparable. He had it with him 24/7. I needed it back, somehow.

Suddenly, a Think struck me. It was a good one - one to at least half-intrigue me. I mean, it was a Think, but it might be one to help save the whole jungle and the reaches beyond. A mysterious smile flickering across my face, I picked up my hat and ran for Nool. I had places to go and people to prove wrong. Oh, I would show that Cat.

* * *

**MagicalAwesomeness: Hey, Seussians, brochachos, Whovians...! Haven't seen you guys in a while!**

**Jojo: Well, duh! Twenty days is a frickin' long time! Where were you?**

**Talia: Yeah, I was feeling forgotten!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: To tell you the truth, I found another fandom to obsess over as well.**

**Talia: What is it? Oh God, you're not a brony now, are you?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Haha, no, I'm not. I found a TV show called... *deep breath* Doctor Who.**

**Jojo: That British show with the alien dude?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Ohmigod yes! Exactly! I've already wrote a mini-crossover story called "Horton Hears a Doctor Who", where the Doctor and his companion accidentally get trapped on the planet of Who.**

**Jojo: Well, that's...**

**Talia: ...interesting.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Oh yeah, I might be changing my username to "TheSeussianDoctor". Okay with you guys?**

**Jojo: I, uh, might have to think about that.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Yeah, b- Hey, where's the Cat?**

**Talia: You don't want to know.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Okay, fine. Don't forget to review, follow, and favorite. Now, let's go! ****_Allons-y_!**

**Jojo: No. Just...no.**


	14. Chapter 13: Just a Cat on the Wing

**13**

I ran into the Things on the edge of the jungle, just where the desert breezes began to mix with the steamy mist. They were managing to push Horton and his clover, a feat in its own.

"Hey! Watch the tail!" Horton was yelling as the Things shoved him across the fields and fields of grass and weeds that had sprung out of the ground some time earlier. Of course, the plants were being squished now, so their lives were short.

One of the Things - I couldn't tell which one, they both looked identical - saluted to me, as to assure me that the job was done. I was about to shoo them off when I remembered that I needed to know who was who. (Haha, get it, Who?) Feeling something tingling, I reached to my ear to find a black permanent marker resting on it. I pulled it off my ear, uncapped it, and bent down so I was eye-level with the Things. Smiling, I leaned closer to the Thing closest to me and drew a large number "1" on its clothed chest. I did the same to the other, but I wrote a "2".

"Do you see? Now you're Thing 1 and Thing 2! Now, hurry along, I've got things to do." I saluted back to them and they grinned widely before dashing off. Then, turning to Horton, my serious face took over, and I gave a General Schmitz-type frown. "Horton the Elephant. I see you've got your clover," I said in a medium-loud voice. He nodded, more than a little scared of all of this. I paced around him, my tail swooshing behind me and my hat sliding around on my furry head. Turning around so I faced him frontally, I nodded towards him. "Well, that's quite a shame; your time together is over!"

Goofily grinning, I grabbed the clover from Horton's - wait, it wasn't a hand. But it wasn't a paw either. What was it? A... limb. Yeah, let's go with "limb". I grabbed the clover from Horton's _limb_ and, with a sudden boost of speed, ran to the cliff face sitting just a few meters away. Winding my arm up, I threw the clover with all my might right over the cliff face, where it slowly yet surely drifted down to the millions of others like it.

"No-o-o-o!" Horton screamed, watching with me as the clover landed safely below. Maybe it was my Cat vision, but I could scope out exactly which one it was. Looking at Horton's befuzzled expression, he obviously couldn't. His expression changing from disbelief to anger, he stared at me with a furrowed brow and bright red cheeks. "You!" he yelled, pointing his stubby foot-limb-thing at me. "Just look and see what you've done!"

"Keeping the story moving, man," I replied, my arms folding. "That way, isn't it more fun?" Using my extremely flexible and surprisingly agile body to do a backflip landwards, I landed on my feet and gave a grin. My whiter-than-white teeth glinted in the 2-o'clock sunlight as I pulled my hat off and bounced it between my hands. "If you want to find it, you should start searching now. Meanwhile, here I go. See ya, Horton. Ciao!"

I was about to run off the cliff and get my glory when Horton turned to stand in my way. His cheeks were a bright shade of red - anger red, not embarrassment red. He seemed to tremble with displeasure. This went way beyond annoyance, and I was starting to worry deep down. "Listen, you crazy, _infuriating _cat! You did that on purpose; I'm sure about that. With your meddling, your plotting, and your disrupting schemes, seeing the Whos again is something of my dreams! I'll find them, I promise, because after all, a person's a person, no matter how small. But I'll do that as long as you leave me alone! I need time to think. Just me, on my own."

Honest to Geisel, I was stunned by Horton's bravery. He was usually a calm, casual guy with few cares in the world. I must have really aggravated him. I felt speechless for the second time on Seuss - the first being when the Cat left.

No. I was not going to think about that. I was going to think about staying positive in a crazy situation and make Horton search for that clover and make Gertrude fall in love with him, not Mayzie. I was going to help set Jojo right and I was going to show everyone that the Whos _were _there and everything was going to be fine. Better than fine. Great. It would be great. Fantastic, even. Amazing. Wonderful. Splendiferous.

"What was that?" Horton asked, sounding only half-furious now. "What'd you say just then?" I looked up, realizing that I had just muttered my thoughts out loud. What was I to say as a rebuttal to that? What even rhymed with "then"? Again, men, glen, den...

Glancing around for a reason to change the topic, my eyes fell on an object in the distance. It seemed to be perched on stilts or something high up. It almost seemed to be a... nest.

A nest! Gertrude's nest! I pointed to it in the distance and Horton turned to see what I was pointing to. "Look! What is that?" I said oversarcastically. Hey, it wasn't my fault that he had a short attention span. As far as elephants went, he didn't remember the most. Squinting a little, I tried to focus my gaze on the far-away nest. The Cat needed glasses. "Geisel, where's it been?" I muttered to myself. Been! Been rhymes with "then".

Giving me an ugly stare, Horton began to search for a way down the steep cliff. "Well, with no help from you, I'll find that small clover! That bird there will help me. This all will blow over." Seeing that there was no safe route down, he turned kinda sheepishly to me. "See, I will find it, 'til in my guilt I'll drown, but for now, I... well, I..."

"need help getting down?" I arched one eyebrow and gazed at the now-embarrassed Horton. He nodded to my arm, and I looked down to realize that I was, in fact, leaning on a black umbrella. It was crooked in a Seuss-y kind of way, and the grip was curved. I saw the little bit of Think in his eyes, and then I got it - we could float down, him and I. It was a crazy idea, for sure - elephants aren't the lightest of animals. But it could work. Just maybe.

I approached the cliff face carefully and gazed from the sheer drop to the ground to the nest, which sat about 600 meters away. It was a risky plan. But hey, we might not end any lives, and I could sing _How Lucky You Are_. Yeah, positive thoughts. I was starting to get the hang of those. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Horton's hopeful smile, and couldn't help but smiling too. "All right, if you're sure, we'll give this a go. And maybe it will work. I don't really know. And Horton, if this does work, if we fly to the nest, you'll talk to who's there, right? You'll give it your best?"

Horton nodded and held out his trunk. Cautiously, I held the umbrella out, and he wrapped his trunk around it. "You know," he said, looking at me. "I've heard of the Cat. His wild, amazing Thinks, all swirling around his hat. And you look like him, yes. On the outside, that's true. But on the inside, you're different - he's nothing like you. You're shy and you're cautious and very, very scared. He's daring and is willing to face the unprepared. So are you not him, or were the stories all fake? I don't know how much more uncertainty I can take."

I stepped back, surprised by how accurate that was. Either Horton had majored in psychology or elephants were smart. I assumed the latter. He could see right through me. I wasn't trying to Think on purpose, but it came naturally. I didn't want it to start, but at the same time, I didn't want it to end. I peered from the lumbering elephant to the dainty little nest in the distance. "Get ready!" I told him, and instinctively, his trunk wrapped tighter around the umbrella handle. I grabbed right above it and hoped that the sound the ground would make if I hit it wouldn't be _kersplat_. "One, two, three, go!" And we ran, the cat and the elephant, to the edge of the cliff, and we ran right off the edge.

At first, there was the perfectly natural feeling of impending doom, like we wouldn't live to see another day. Yes, I let out a girly whimper, and yes, Horton did too, but as we catapulted ourselves to the ground, we caught a gust of wind that was just strong enough to lift us up again. I didn't know where it came from, but I swore that I saw a patch of blue fuzz and red cloth that could only belong to Thing 1 and Thing 2. Those two things were really loyal, I guess. In everything I had seen, the Things always did the opposite of what they were told. I guess they treated me differently.

Meanwhile, Horton scoped the ground, trying to listen for the small call of Whos. I heard it loud and clear, coming from about 6:00 behind us, but I figured that I shouldn't make a big fuss about it when he was heading to Gertrude.

Oh yeah, Gertrude and Mayzie. How'd that happen, anyway? Was there a kind of jolt that flipped the personalities of the two birds? Did _I_ cause that? Now that the Cat wasn't here to answer all my questions, I'd be wondering a lot more things. And thinks. And Thinks, but never mind that.

As we neared the nest, I realized that it was bigger than I thought it was. There were people downtown from my house who had smaller apartments than this. Geisel. Gertrude was relaxing in a corner on top of her egg, which seemed to be very uncharacteristic of her. She was watching something on a Seuss television - what looked like a reality show about Birdgirls who roomed together in Seuss Jersey who were getting in a fight over who had the biggest tail. I looked over to Horton, who was clinging on for dear life. "Let go, Horton!" I called to him through the gusts of wind that smelled of pregnancy.

"Are you out of your mind?!" he yelled back, his deep, yet just-a-tenor voice resonating. "I'll shatter the nest! I'll land right on my hind!"

I rolled my eyes slightly. Why did no one ever trust someone who broke that trust all the time? "The nest is fine, Horton. It's structurally sound. You can ask her 'bout the clover. I'm sure she'll come 'round."

"All right, if you're sure, I'll trust you with this." Horton seemed to ready himself for letting go of an umbrella (which, by the way, had stretched to be the size of a paraglider). "But, trust me, you won't like it if I happen to miss." With that he gulped and dropped out of the sky. Good thing it was only 15 feet from the umbrella to the nest.

Gertrude jumped a little when Horton landed in her nest. "Can't anyone get a little privacy around here?" she moaned.

Meanwhile, you could hear bundles of sticks breaking as Horton inspected the luxury of the place. "So Gertrude, you live on a nest," he said deducingly, as if the shape and the design and the fact Gertrude was a bird didn't give it away.

"Yeah." Gertrude sounded taken-back. She got up momentarily from her position as egg-sitter to look Horton in the face. "You wanna make something of it?"

Horton shook his head violently, his floppy ears flapping in the wind. "No, no, no." If there was one thing Horton didn't like, it was creating conflict. "I, uh, I just never thought I'd see you on a nest."

By this time, I had landed on the nest as well, and was wondering how I'd be able to pull a grand piano out of my hat. As Gertrude opened her mouth, I closed my eyes and hummed a verse of _Oh the Thinks You Can Think _to make one appear. It went very fast, and as a result, the piano was a baby grand, but I wasn't about to complain. I put my fingers on the starting notes and waited for my cue.

Gertrude looked right past me as she headed back to her recliner with the egg propped in it. "Neither did I, Hort. Neither did I."

I was about to hit the keys to begin Mayzie's reprise of _How Lucky You Are _when I remembered one small detail.

I didn't know how to play the piano.

Oops.

* * *

**MagicalAwesomeness: Aaaaaand project T-CAM back!**

**Talia: *slaps MA* TWO MONTHS. WE'VE BEEN SITTING HERE TWO MONTHS WHILE YOU FROLICK AROUND THE ENTIRETY OF TIME AND SPACE. YOU SPENT SO MUCH TIME ON RAPAFORINOFARTANAPORIUS OR WHATEVER IT WAS THAT YOU FORGOT _HOW LUCKY YOU ARE_!  
**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Okay, first of all, it's Raxacoricofallapatorius, and second, I'm getting there. I need more time.**

**Jojo: We've given you time! We've sat here locked away in a cold, dark place of the Internet for two months and what gratitude are you showing us? None!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: You can't expect me to be all-Seuss, all the time! I need to take a break!**

**Talia: You promised the end of Act One! You promised us!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Hey, where's the Cat? He never misses out on a good argument. He sits in the corner and eats popcorn, but he doesn't miss it...**

**Talia: *small huff* Who needs a man? Or a... cat? I'm perfectly fine on my own!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: *looks into the audience as she's being pushed into a corner* Don't forget to favorite and follow this. I'll try for more updates, I promise.**

**Jojo: *crosses arms* Darn right she will. She'll finish this for all of us.**


	15. Chapter 14: Things Couldn't Be Worse

**14**

Lots of people can't play the piano. Usually, I counted on the orchestra and the musical accompaniment from the computer software to "play". I usually just bumped my hands around on a piano-shaped wood structure with totally fake black-and-white keys. This was the real thing, though. I had figured the Cat would take over from here - you know, take control of his own arms again. Now I was like a marionette puppet without someone controlling it; completely useless.

So as Gertrude said "Neither did I," I was kinda panicking. I had placed my hands at about the spot they would normally go (one on the left side and one on the right), but I had no clue what to do next. Did I hit the keys hard or soft? How far should my fingers be spread apart? The closest I had ever been to playing a piano was listening to the piano song "Silence" from the band Trouble in the Darkness. I was at least going to try, though. I winced a little as I practically slammed my hands into the keys...

...and played the notes perfectly. It took me a few seconds to realize that the piano I had Thought up was the kind of piano that could play itself. I just had to act like I was hitting the keys and everything would be fine.

Gertrude swished her floor-touching tail as she began to riff to the elephant. It went something along the lines of "L_a da da da da dah dah dow dow!_" She was very much like Mayzie in the sense of her flamboyance and glamour. She overdramatically turned from her path to the chair to me and my piano. "_I was down in Fort Worth, just a girl on the wing,_" she cawed, pulling what could be considered as a sexy model walk. "_When I met Tweet McFirth_-" she turned around and gazed at Horton before giving an exclamation. "_Oh, could that night owl sing! Tell yourself how lucky you are..._"

"_How lucky, how lucky you are!_" I tried to imitate Louis Armstrong (unsuccessfully, I might add). My voice croaked a little and Gertrude gave me a look that screamed 'Don't do that again'. I wasn't going to try, anyway. Ouch, that was awful.

"_We spent three weeks of bliss, then the usual segue._" Gertrude was on the piano now, laying with her head resting on one arm and a smug grin on her face. "_He flew off to San Juan, leaving me with this_ egg!" At this, she pointed to the egg grumpily. I did feel a little empathetic for her; Tweet McFirth was a player and she had managed to get played. I guess they didn't have abortions for eggs in Nool. "_Tell yourself how lucky you are..._"

I rolled my eyes and slumped a little as I sang "_How lucky you are_" in a normal voice. It was amazing how much the music changed; it was low one minute and high the next and always changing, low to high, low to high. I tried to move my hands fast enough to keep up with the everflowing music that sounded like it had sprung from the _Seussical_ soundtrack itself.

"_Now I'm bored and I'm cranky and tired, sitting day after day,_" Gertrude moaned, rolling onto her back and staring into the cloudless, stereotypical Seuss-blue. "_Who knew so much work was required?! I'd much rather play._" As the words left her lips, Gertrude sat up and looked from me to the egg to Horton, who was sitting unamusedly as far away from the bird as he could. I was beginning to doubt that I could possibly get the two of them together by the end of Act 2, based on how they were avoiding each other by almost the end of Act 1. "_I need a vacation, I'm due for some rest... Hey, Horton, would you maybe like to sit on my nest?_"

Horton looked up at Gertrude as she said that, looking astounded that she could even suggest such a thing. "Why, Gertrude, I couldn't! Of all silly things." He seemed to snicker at this slightly as he held up one of his arm-limb-thingys. "I haven't got feathers, and I haven't got wings! And not only that, but I'm here on a search." At this, he glanced out to the hundreds of thousands of fluffy pink puffballs which lay on the ground as far as the eye could see. "I just _couldn't_ leave my poor Whos in a lurch."

"Oh, I won't be gone long, Hort! I give you my word. I'll hurry right back 'cuz I'm that sort of a bird." As that last sentence progressed, Gertrude's voice became quieter and quieter until there was almost nothing left. That was a trait of Gertrude/Mayzie that seemed to be constant - her voice level dropped when she lied. And that bird was quite a fibber. "Horton, I promise, I'll fly back real soon. I'll only be gone for, say, one afternoon?" Her barely audible voice would be hard for anyone normal to hear. However, Horton had great elephant hearing, and my Hat could amplify the sounds of whatever I wanted it to. We could both hear what she had said, and while I knew she was going to say that, Horton didn't and became flustered.

"Well, we all need vacations," he began to reason, pacing around the nest that suddenly felt smaller because he was with us. "All right, go on, take it. I'll sit on your egg and I'll try not to break it." He neared the egg cautiously, like if he wasn't looking it would bite him. "But please, come back quickly. One hour, maybe two. I need to find Jojo. I've got to save Who!"

Gertrude, obviously happy with this information, climbed off the piano and speed-walked to the Seuss television. It was off now; did it have a feature that shut off when singing occurred? It didn't seem like a highly-needed component. Reaching behind the TV, she pulled out a teal leather suitcase. On the front and back, there were cliche stickers depicting Paris, London, and other famous places in Europe. Slipping on a pair of sunglasses covered with rhinestones, she smiled as much as a turquoise-colored bird could. "Hit it, Cat!" she squawked, and the piano took over again, playing a fusion of jazz and Latin music. Gertrude then seized the opportunity of the background music and flew off into the sky, her tail flapping behind her in the wind. "See ya! Thanks a million! Toodle-oooooo!" she called, getting farther and farther into the distance.

As the bird began to sail to Palm Beach, I was wondering how to get a baby grand piano off of a nest twenty feet from the ground without breaking it. It wasn't that I would need it later; it was just that it was a nice looking piano. The music of the jungle began to squeeze itself back in, and as Horton started moving closer to the egg, I contemplated even dropping it and rebuilding it later. I took off my Hat so that it wouldn't get in the way of my thinking (with a lowercase 't').

The Birdgirls, who I hadn't noticed had arrived, were standing under the nest, right where I was going to drop the piano from. "Hey! Psst, you! You three Birdgirls! Get out of the way before the piano unfurls!"

The Birdgirl in lime green was the only one who acknowledged my existence of the three (one in orange, one in green, and one in purple), but she only looked up at me to shake her head 'no' as they began to sing. "Then carefully, tenderly, gently he crept, up the truck to the nest where the little egg slept. Then Horton the Elephant smiled-"

"Now, that's that," Horton nodded satisfactorily. He was squatting over the egg now, but not sitting on it. I'm pretty sure he didn't want a Gertrude's Kid Omelette today. That would be kinda gross, anyway.

"-and he sat and he sat and he sat and he sat!" The piano was about seven feet long, but my hat was only a foot-and-a-half tall. It was bigger on the inside, though. That was a plus. Out of desperation, I kicked the piano sharply on one of its legs, and the piano shrunk to six inches tall and rolled into my hat with no problem at all. Funny.

The weather in Nool was funny, too. At three o'clock, there wasn't a cloud to be seen, but by eight, it was pouring like crazy on almost everything, including Horton and the egg. "He sat all that day and he kept the egg warm," the Birdgirls sang, doing some strange kind of mystical rain dance. Nothing seemed to be too weird for this place, but that was just crossing the line from whimsical to outlandish. "And he sat all that night through a terrible storm!"

Horton, in the meantime, was sputtering and coughing to keep sitting on the egg. "I'm cold, and I'm wet, and I'm catching the flu!" he wailed, his tears masked by the raindrops splashing across his gray wrinkled skin. "Oh, Gertrude, please find me, vacation is through! Oh, Gertrude, please hurry, I've got to save Who..." At this, he broke down again, sobbing for not only his sake and the egg's, but for Who's as well. It was a sad thing to watch, so I didn't watch all of it. It's like a movie where a dog dies. You want to watch it, but you don't want to start crying like some emotional teenage girl.

On a completely different note, the Cat couldn't time travel. I don't know how many people already knew this, but I had assumed that I could take a shortcut and arrive in December. Apparently, I had to take the long way around just like normal people. Even if that meant trimming down weeks and weeks of boredom to a thousand words. The rest of the song _Horton Sits on the Egg_ describes how Horton went weeks and weeks sitting. What they forgot to mention was that there was a television in the nest. It got HD signal and hundreds of channels. And sometimes the space heater worked. Anyone could sit for weeks and watch TV.

I, however, was freelancing, checking out all around Nool and the farther reaches of Outer Nool, as well as the planet of Who. I visited Jojo at General Schmitz's Military Academy quite a lot. Every time, he told me about how dull things were and how bad the cafeteria food was, and I told him about what I had seen - pink-and-blue Tessela Trees (which, despite the similarity in names, were nothing like Truffula Trees), deserts made of rainbow-colored sand, and icy mountains where grumpy old Grinches and their dogs lived. Jojo was always amazed by these stories and constantly wanted more of them. You could tell that the Think was leaving from him, and that salvage was needed. Once, I brought him a jar of green sludge from the swamp of Guzzaballoo, but General Schmitz confiscated it immediately, saying that the goop could be radioactive and he should be beaten for thinking that it came from a place with a name like Guzzaballoo. One of these days, I'd like to give that General a piece of _my_ mind.

Of course, I checked in on Horton, too, but always discreetly, pretending to be the nest inspector or the landlord or the postman. I intercepted Gertrude's postcard from its route to her friend Clarabelle and gave it to Mayzie. I happened to see Mayzie deliver Horton the postcard and a scarf for him, and I felt happy for her, like she had found something valuable to do with her time. Even if it was obsessing over someone she wasn't supposed to love.

She came to visit him in late November, or what would be around Thanksgiving weekend. "Horton!" she called to him as she tried to climb the stairs to the nest. I put emphasis on the word 'tried' because her tail was so long now that you could practically roll it up into a tape measure. She pulled her tail along as she delivered her goods to the elephant. "Horton, I knit you a scarf! And a little hat for the egg." She gave him the green-and-brown scarf and an egg-sized hat to match. Horton slipped the hat over the egg.

"Um, thanks- What was your name again? Martha? Maya?" he asked, throwing the scarf around his neck. "Oh, I remember! Your name's Mayflower!"

"May-_ZEE_." Mayzie's smile fell a bit. "My name's Mayzie."

Horton nodded, the name being reassured from his subconscious. "Yes, that's it. Have you heard from Gertrude?"

Mayzie held out the postcard depicting palm trees, beaches, and blue skies. "She sent a postcard from..." She looked at the back of the card to see where it came from. "...Palm Beach."

"Palm Beach?! Mayzie, what if she never comes back?"

"Don't worry, she will," Mayzie reassured the frantic elephant, adding "I hope" to the end quietly. "Oh, and Horton, notice anything... different?" She shook her tail a bit for emphasis.

Horton, completely naive to the fact that Mayzie was dragging her tail around, pulled the scarf tighter. "Y-yeah," he stuttered. "It's getting c-colder."

Mayzie gathered her tail up and, with a humph, hurried back down the stairs. She tripped once, twice, and then fell to the frost-covered ground, her tail smothering her like a blanket. I felt hesitant to help her up, but she finally dragged herself up from the hard ground as snow began to fall and coat the area in a light dusting.

December came. The Whos began to hang Christmas decorations on their houses - except for at the Military Academy. Jojo and the other boys did push-ups in the snow and stood as long as they could in the freezing cold. I didn't know whether to laugh as the Cat or help as Talia. I assumed that I had to keep in character, so that was what I did. Jojo still loved to hear about Nool and Horton as bedtime stories, though. That's all my adventures had become anymore - bedtime stories for young Who children.

During the second week of December, it happened. Everything changed. The space heater had broke from constant usage and Horton had severe frostbite. No matter how much snow coated him (which was a lot), he stayed by the egg and kept it warm. The best way to describe it was what the Birdgirls sang: "_And then came the winter, the snow and the sleet, and icicles hung from his trunk and his feet._" There was snow, and there was sleet, and Horton was covered from head to toe in ice crystals and slush. "_I c-can't l-leave this n-nest,_" he shivered, his teeth practically chattering. "_N-no, I m-meant what I-I said. T-this egg m-might be f-frozen, but the W-Whos might be d-dead._" I saw hunters sneaking up on the elephant, but I didn't say a thing. I was supposed to be calm and discreet.

"_I c-couldn't say no w-when I heard G-Gertrude beg; now I'm s-stuck between a d-dust speck and an i-incubating egg!_" Horton cried, and as he did so, one of the hunters shouted. "Drop the egg! Back away from the nest! Move in, team!" Three other hunters climbed the stairs to the nest and began to circle around Horton. The hunters were clearly human, so they couldn't possibly think the elephant could understand them. Then again, it was Seuss. Anything was possible.

Horton, who was frightened by these people pointing guns at his head, began to trumpet loudly as a distress signal. "Someone, help me! Hunters! Help! HELP!"

Mayzie instinctively peeked her head out from under the nest. I hadn't seen her sitting there before, but she seemed to have been sitting there, waiting for Horton's call. When she saw the hunters, she got to her feet and tried to run to the one she loved. 'Tried' meaning that she fell over again from her tail stretching around her legs. "Horton!" she yelled, trying to stand up again, but falling over. "I'm here, Horton! Ho-o-o-rto-o-o-o-on!"

As both their faces were stricken with fear and panic, the music changed from scary and dramatic to poppy and lively. Everyone quickly began to feel blithe and happy-go-lucky, and there seemed to be not a care in the world. "_When your life's going wrong and you're wondering why,_" Horton began, looking around at the hunters and smiling.

"_When your tail's so long you're unable to fly,_" Mayzie continued, standing up with ease.

"_Tell yourself how lucky you are._" I joined the two animals in song, and then expected to hear Jojo's side of the story. However, they skipped right over the second verse and used alternate words, like the Whos had never fallen. "_Why decry a cloudy sky..._"

Of course! Why didn't I see it before? Every time I visited Jojo, the Academy wasn't patching up damage, and everything looked untouched. Where the clover fell made a difference, and the clover must not have hit the ground as hard at the spot that it landed when I threw it versus where Vlad Vladikoff dropped it. And because of that, the Whos didn't work together before the Butter Battle, so that meant the Whos went to war quicker. Which meant... Jojo! I had to get to Jojo!

As the citizens of Nool sang "_An empty purse, a crazy universe_" I pulled my hat off and pictured the Military Academy in my mind. As they sang "_My philosophy is simply things could be worse_" I was traveling from Nool to Who, and by the time they continued to the third verse, I was calling Jojo's name. Nobody could see or hear me except for him, and when I yelled for him, he usually came running. Not today.

As I entered the dark, grim academy, I caught glimpse of a small TV on a desk which was showing the news. Right now, they were streaming alerts about a missing child who looked exactly like Jojo. "...He went missing from General Schmitz's Military Academy just a few hours ago," a male newscaster was broadcasting. "This child is a Thinker and is highly dangerous. Anyone who has information about the whereabouts of this child should contact General Schmitz and the Mayor of Whoville immediately. There will be a reward for anyone who finds this child. And now, the weather." I grabbed the remote off of the desk and shut the TV off. I was processing what I should do when I heard it - the singing. It came from all over Nool, maybe even all over Seuss. "_So be happy you're here, think of life as a thrill, and if worse comes to worse-_"

"-_as we all know it will,_" I sang along. Hey, the tune was catchy. I turned around and headed out the door into the foot-deep snow so as to hear the singing better. "_Thank your lucky star you've gotten this far..._"

I reached into my hat and grabbed a red-and-white-striped megaphone. "It's time for a brief intermission!" I shouted into the megaphone, pointing it upwards and out of the sound barrier.

"Which means Act 1 is through!" the citizens of Nool responded. If they could hear me, why couldn't they hear the Whos?

"So go have a nice intermission, the lobby's a real zoo!" I yelled again, screaming as loud as I could. "But we've gotta fix up the stage and get ready to play Act 2!"

"_So tell yourself how lucky you are!_" the Nool citizens sang.

I looked up into the sky and saw - no, it couldn't be. But it was. A curtain dropping out of the sky, as far as the eye could see in either direction. And it was sinking fast.

"_How lucky, how lucky, how lucky you,_" I sang the harmony into the megaphone, hoping the curtain wouldn't squish me to death. "_How lucky, how lucky, how lucky you; how lucky, how lucky, how lucky you-_" The curtain was practically on top of me, and as I strained to keep it up, I managed to yell, "How lucky you are!" Then, as the song ended, the curtain dropped to the ground, and Act 1 was over._  
_

* * *

**Talia: Wow, that was... fast!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Well, I take criticism very seriously, even if it is from characters from the figment of my imagination.**

**Talia: I can see that.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Where's Jojo?**

**Talia: Gone.**

**MagicalAwesomeness: No Cat and no Jojo... you're saying it's just you and me now?**

**Talia: Unfortunately, yes. Will you update soon? Will I find Jojo?**

**MagicalAwesomeness: *small wink* Spoilers. But yes, I'll be updating much more often, if I get follows, favorites, and reviews from a larger audience. I'll be working on making sure the beginning is an attention-holder if people show interest.**

**Talia: *looks to the audience* SO REVIEW, PEOPLE! I NEED TO FIND A LOST THINKER!**

**MagicalAwesomeness: Couldn't have said it better myself. See ya in the future.**


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